and from a book by L. C. D. Van Dijk, brought out in the same year
in which MAJOR'S work appeared, and entitled _Twee togten naar de golf
van Carpentaria_; though, I say, from these two books it became evident
that MAJOR'S work was far from complete, still it cannot be denied that
he had given a great deal, and what he had given, had in the English
translation been made accessible also to those to whom Dutch was an
unknown tongue. This circumstance could not but make itself felt in my
treatment of the subject, since it was quite needless to print once more
in their entirety various documents discussed by MAJOR. There was the
less need for such republication in cases which would admit of the
results of Dutch exploratory voyages being exhibited in the simplest and
most effective way by the reproduction of charts made in the course of
such voyages themselves: these charts sometimes speak more clearly to the
reader than the circumstantial journals which usually, though not always,
are of interest for our purpose only by specifying the route followed,
the longitudes and latitudes taken, and the points touched at by the
voyagers. These considerations have in some cases led me only to mention
certain documents, without printing them in full, and the circumstance
that my Tasman publication has been brought out in English, will
sufficiently account for the absence from this work of the journal of
Tasman's famous expedition of 1642/3.[*]

[* I would have the present work considered as forming one whole with my
Tasman publication and with the fascicule of _Remarkable Maps_, prepared
by me, containing the Nolpe-Dozy chart of 1652-3 (Cf. my Life of Tasman,
pp. 75 f). Together they furnish all the most important pieces of
evidence discovered up to now, for the share which the Netherlanders have
had in the discovery of Australia.]

{Page iii}

The documents, here either republished or printed for the first time, are
all of them preserved in the State Archives at the Hague[*], unless
otherwise indicated. They have been arranged under the heads of the
consecutive expeditions, which in their turn figure in chronological
order. This seemed to me the best way to enable readers to obtain a clear
view of the results of the exploratory voyages made along the coasts of
Australia by the Netherlanders of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.

[* My best thanks are due to Jhr. Th. Van Riemsdijk, LL. D., Principal
Keeper, and to Dr. T. H.