There Were Also Some Other Voyages Made, Of Which,
However, We Have No Sort Of Account, Except That The Dutch
Were
continually beaten in all their attempts to land upon this coast.
On their settlement, however, at Batavia, the then
General and
council of the Indies thought it requisite to have a more perfect
survey made of the new-found countries, that the memory of them at
least might be preserved, in case no further attempts were made to
settle them; and it was very probably a foresight of few ships going
that route any more, which induced such as had then the direction of
the Company's affairs to wish that some such survey and description
might be made by an able seaman, who was well acquainted with those
coasts, and who might be able to add to the discoveries already
made, as well as furnish a more accurate description, even of them,
than had been hitherto given.
This was faithfully performed by Captain Tasman; and from the lights
afforded by his journal, a very exact and curious map was made of
all these new countries. But his voyage was never published entire;
and it is very probable that the East India Company never intended
it should be published at all. However, Dirk Rembrantz, moved by
the excellency and accuracy of the work, published in Low Dutch an
extract of Captain Tasman's Journal, which has been ever since
considered as a very great curiosity; and, as such, has been
translated into many languages, particularly into our own, by the
care of the learned Professor of Gresham College, Doctor Hook, an
abridgment of which translation found a place in Doctor Harris's
Collection of Voyages.
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