s
was despatched on a voyage to the South Seas with three ships.
He discovered the New Hebrides, and believed it formed part of
the southern continent, and he therefore named it Australia del
Espiritu Santo, and hastened home to obtain the viceroyalty of
this new possession. One of his ships got separated from him, and
the commander, Luys Vaz de Torres, sailed farther to the south-west,
and thereby learned that the New Australia was not a continent but
an island. He proceeded farther till he came to New Guinea, which
he coasted along the south coast, and seeing land to the south of
him, he thus passed through the straits since named after him, and
was probably the first European to see the continent of Australia.
In the very same year (1606) the Dutch yacht named the _Duyfken_ is
said to have coasted along the south and west coasts of New Guinea
nearly a thousand miles, till they reached Cape Keerweer, or "turn
again." This was probably the north-west coast of Australia. In the
first thirty years of the seventeenth century the Dutch followed
the west coast of Australia with as much industry as the Portuguese
had done with the west coast of Africa, leaving up to the present
day signs of their explorations in the names of islands, bays,
and capes. Dirk Hartog, in the _Endraaght_, discovered that Land
which is named after his ship, and the cape and roadstead named
after himself, in 1616. Jan Edels left his name upon the western
coast in 1619; while, three years later, a ship named the _Lioness_
or _Leeuwin_ reached the most western point of the continent, to
which its name is still attached. Five years later, in 1627, De
Nuyts coasted round the south coast of Australia; while in the
same year a Dutch commander named Carpenter discovered and gave
his name to the immense indentation still known as the Gulf of
Carpentaria.

But still more important discoveries were made in 1642 by an expedition
sent out from Batavia under ABEL JANSSEN TASMAN to investigate
the real extent of the southern land. After the voyages of the
_Leeuwin_ and De Nuyts it was seen that the southern coast of the
new land trended to the east, instead of working round to the west,
as would have been the case if Ptolemy's views had been correct.
Tasman's problem was to discover whether it was connected with the
great southern land assumed to lie to the south of South America.
Tasman first sailed from Mauritius, and then directing his course
to the south-e