years various Dutch
vessels, while sailing to the settlements in the East Indies, met with
the coast of Australia. In 1616 Dirk Hartog landed on the island in
Shark Bay which is now called after him. Two years later Captain Zaachen
is said to have sailed along the north coast, which he called Arnhem
Land. Next year (1619) another captain, called Edel, surveyed the
western shores, which for a long time bore his name. In 1622 a Dutch
ship, the _Leeuwin_, or _Lioness_, sailed along the southern coast, and
its name was given to the south-west cape of Australia. In 1627 Peter
Nuyts entered the Great Australian Bight, and made a rough chart of
some of its shores; in 1628 General Carpenter sailed completely round
the large gulf to the north, which has taken its name from this
circumstance. Thus, by degrees, all the northern and western, together
with part of the southern shores, came to be roughly explored, and the
Dutch even had some idea of colonising this continent.

#6. Tasman.#--During the next fourteen years we hear no more of voyages
to Australia; but in 1642 Antony Van Diemen, the Governor of the Dutch
possessions in the East Indies, sent out his friend Abel Jansen Tasman,
with two ships, to make new discoveries in the South Seas. Tasman first
went to the Island of Bourbon, from which he sailed due south for a
time; but finding no signs of land, he turned to the east, and three
months after setting out he saw a rocky shore in the distance. Stormy
weather coming on, he was driven out to sea, and it was not till a week
later that he was able to reach the coast again. He called the place Van
Diemen's Land, and sent some sailors on shore to examine the country.
These men heard strange noises in the woods, and saw trees of enormous
height, in which notches were cut seven feet apart. These they believed
to be the steps used by the natives in climbing the trees, and they
therefore returned to report that the land was exceedingly beautiful,
but inhabited by men of gigantic size. Tasman, next day, allowed the
carpenter to swim ashore and set up the Dutch flag; but having himself
seen, from his ship, what he thought to be men of extraordinary stature
moving about on the shore, he lost no time in taking up his anchor and
setting sail. Farther to the east he discovered the islands of New
Zealand, and after having made a partial survey of their coasts, he
returned to Batavia. Two years after he was sent on a second voyage of
disc