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Map Matters

Issue 1

Issue 13 December 2010

Inside this issue

News

Well-travelled artefacts come homeMatthew Flinders return symposiumClaims the Portuguese sighted Terra Australis in 1500

Welcome to the "Summer" 2010 edition of Map Matters, the newsletter of the Australia on the Map Division of the Australasian Hydrographic Society.

If you have any contributions or suggestions for Map Matters, you can email them to me at: fgeurts@vtown.com.au, or post them to me at:

GPO Box 1781, Canberra, 2601

Frank GeurtsEditor

NewsWell-travelled artefacts come home

Between 1629 and 1712 four Dutch ships had the misfortune to be wrecked on the coast of Western Australia, the Batavia (1629), the Vergulde Draeck (1656), the Zuytdorp (1712) and the Zeewijk (1727). Over time these wrecks have been "discovered" and excavated, with a considerable amount of material being retrieved.The remnants of the Zeewijk were first noted by Captain Stokes of the Beagle (the ship Darwin had sailed on previously) in 1840 in the Southern or Pelsaert Group of the Abrolhos Islands. Some objects and other material left by the survivors were collected from Gun and Pelsaert Island in the 1890s by the principals of a guano mining company operating there, and in 1952 crew from HMAS Mildura and HMAS Fremantle raised three cannons. Further material was recovered as result of newspaper-funded expeditions in the 1960s, and finally the WA Maritime Museum carried out extensive surveys of the scattered debris from the wreck between 1976 and 1979.

Wreckage and other material from the Zuytdorp had been first reported in 1927, found by Tom Pepper and Ada Drage along the Zuytdorp Cliffs, 550 km north of Perth. There were a couple of expedition to the area in the 1950s but it was not until 1959 that Phillip Playford was able to formally identify the wreck as the Zuytdorp. Because of the dangerous situation of the wreck no-one was actually able to dive on it until Max and Graham Cramer and Tom Brady managed it in 1963. These divers reported coming across a “carpet of silver” on the sea bed. They recovered some items, such as several small cannons, and the WA Maritime Museum managed to retrieve a further 3,500 coins, a cannon and a bell in 1971. Investigations continued here until the late 1990s.

On 14 April 1963 another of these historic wrecks, the Vergulde Draeck, was discovered by 16-year-old Graeme Henderson while scuba diving off Ledge Point, 110 kilometres north of Perth. This sensational find became the subject of some controversy as looters took to dynamiting the wreck. Nevertheless the WA Maritime Museum was able to recover a substantial amount of material in the course their excavations.

Some of the returned Dutch shipwreck material (courtesy Centre for International Heritage Activities)

Remarkably, just over six weeks after the Vergulde Draeck was found, the long sought- after wreck of the Batavia was finally located in the Wallabi or Northern Group of the Abrolhos Islands, on 4 June 1963. The find was an international sensation and excavations and recovery of artefacts, mainly the cannons, began almost immediately. Ultimately many valuable and unique items were brought up, including part of the Batavia itself and the portico intended up for Batavia Castle, now residing in the WA Museum’s Shipwrecks Gallery in Fremantle.

The legal status of these wrecks was in question at the time they were found, and this necessitated state and federal shipwrecks legislation to secure them from private interests and interference. As the wrecks were the property of the Dutch government, which had inherited all the assets of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) in 1800, a bilateral agreement was reached between the Australian and Dutch governments in 1972 to share the wreck material equally. This agreement resulted in the formation of ANCODS, the Agreement between Australian and Netherlands Concerning Old Dutch Shipwrecks. In 2009 the then Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen, whilst on a visit to Australia, announced that the Dutch government had decided to transfer all of the material it held to Australia, thus uniting the whole collection.

And true to their word, the artefacts have come home. On the evening of Tuesday, 9 November, in the Terrace Room at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, overlooking picturesque Darling Harbour, the Netherlands Ambassador Willem Andreae formally unveiled and handed over the Dutch portion. Those fortunate to be guests at this function were treated a glimpse of some of the rare objects being returned.

Accepting these historic items on behalf of the Australian government was the Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water, Senator Don Farrell.

Ultimately all the material will be housed in the Shipwrecks Gallery in Fremantle,

where it will again be united with the other half of the collection, having twice travelled back and forth from one side of the world to the other over a period three to four centuries.

Rupert Gerritsen

Matthew Flinders return symposium

On Sunday 31 October 2010, AOTM members Rupert Gerritsen and Robert King attended a symposium to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Matthew Flinders’ return to England, held at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour.

Matthew Flinders

The symposium was introduced by Her Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, Professor Marie Bashir, AC, CVO. The Mitchell Library's Paul Brunton spoke on “Matthew Flinders through his private letters”, and Australian map collector Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy, AM, spoke on “Matthew Flinders, the mapmaker”. Flinders biographer (and AOTM member), Miriam Estensen, spoke on “Some lesser voices in the life of Matthew Flinders”, drawing on numerous minor but important sources of information about his life, including biographical sketches, journal entries, letters and books, many by people who knew him. These provided unusual personal glimpses of Flinders, reflecting the emotions of the writers and showing how attitudes have changed over the course of two centuries. As a physician, Professor Clancy was able to reveal to the audience that Flinders’ demise was due to a urinary tract infection, consistent with a late stage of gonorrhoea, probably contracted in Tahiti in 1791 during the visit of HMS Providence, in which Flinders served as a midshipman under the command of Captain William Bligh. The portrait which Paul Brunton drew from Flinders’ private letters was of an engaging man, passionately devoted to his wife and his profession, witty, well-read, and in many ways high-minded, but nonetheless a man with more than a hint of arrogance and self-will, both of which were ultimately to have devastating consequences in his clash with Governor Decaen on Mauritius, leading to his incarceration there.

Robert King

Claims the Portuguese sighted Terra Australis in 1500At various times controversial claims have arisen that the Portuguese sighted Australia and set foot on Australian soil. One of the earliest of these reported sightings dates from 1500. It is only by going back to the original sources and endeavouring to make sense of them that the validity of such claims can be properly assessed.Pedro Alvares Cabral’s VoyageA letter dated 27 June 1501, from Giovanni Matteo Cretico, the Venetian Ambassador to Portugal, describing Pedro Alvares Cabral’s discovery of Brazil during his voyage to India of 1500-1501, was printed in Paesi novamente retrovati, published in Vicenza in 1507 (and in Latin and German versions in 1508). It stated:

Above the Cape of Good Hope they discovered a new land towards the west, which they called the Land of Parrots (terra d li Papaga), because some are found there which are a cubit and a half in length, of various colours. We saw two of these. They judged that this was mainland because they ran along the coast more than two thousand miles but did not find the end of it. It is inhabited by naked and handsome people.i

Cretico’s letter was reprinted in 1532 in Novus Orbis (cap.xxv, Exemplum literarum cuiusdam Cretici), but with a significant error. Where the original said: “Di sopra dal capo d Bôasperâza verso garbi hano scopto una terra nova la chiamâo d li Papaga (Above the Cape of Good Hope they discovered a new land towards the south-west, which they called the Land of Parrots)”, the Novus Orbis version said: “Supra Caput bonae spei lebegio vecti vento nacti sunt novam tellurem quam apellarunt Psittacorum (Near the Cape of Good Hope they were driven by a south-west wind and discovered a new land, which they called the Land of Parrots)”. The phrase Cretico used, “verso garbi (towards the south-west)”, was mistranslated in Novus Orbis as “lebegio vecti vento (driven by a south-west wind)”. This put the Psittacorum Regio [Land of Parrots], incorrectly, to the south-east of the Cape of Good Hope, in the Southern Continent.ii Gerard Mercator, misled by the mistake in Novus Orbis, misplaced the Land of Parrots on his globe of 1541 to the Southern Continent and inscribed over the portion of it to the south-east of the Cape of Good Hope:

Psitacorum regio a Lusitanis anno 1500 ad milia passuum bis mille praeter vectis sic appellata quod psitocos alat inauditae magnitudinis, ut qui ternos cubitos aequẽt longitudine (The land of Parrots, so called by the Portuguese who in the year 1500 were carried further than two thousand miles, because of the parrots with wings of unheard of size equaling three cubits in length).iii

On his planisphere of 1566, the Dieppois navigator and cartographer Guillaume Le Testu inscribed over the Terre Australle to the south of Madagascar a legend attributing its discovery to Portuguese navigators:

Certain Portuguese going to the Indies were, by adverse weather conditions, carried far south of the Cape of Good Hope. They made report that they had had some knowledge of this land. Nevertheless, it not having been otherwise discovered, I have merely noted it here, not willing to add credence to it.iv

Like Mercator in 1541 and possibly influenced by him, Le Testu’s ascription in his planisphere of 1566 of the discovery of the Terre Australe to Portuguese navigators was apparently based on the mistake in translation of Cretico’s letter made by Grynaeus and Huttich in Novus Orbis.

Amerigo Vespucci’s Third VoyageVespucci’s third voyage was undertaken with Gonçalo Coelho in the service of Portugal. During this voyage, on 7 April 1502, they sighted land, probably the Falkland/Malvinas Islands. This discovery was reported in the Soderini Letter printed in Florence c.1505 to have been 600 leagues from Cape St. Augustine:

We ran along the coast to the length of 750 leagues, 150 leagues west of the cape called St. Augustine, and 600 leagues to the southwest (& le 600. verso el libeccio)...while in this tempest on the seventh day of April [1502], we had sight of a new land (havimo vista de nuova terra), along which we ran for about 20 leagues, and found that it was wholly a rough coast; and we beheld therein neither any harbour nor any people...finding ourselves in so great a danger and in such a tempest...we agreed with the Admiral (Capitano maggiore)...that we should abandon [this] land, and turn round for Portugal.v

Martin Fernandez de Enciso in his Suma de Geographia, Seville, 1519, fol.liv, verso, (repr. Madrid, 1948) says of the discovery of land in 42ºS during a voyage performed in the service of Portugal:

This Cape of Good Hope has to the west the land called Austral; from the Cape of Good Hope to the Tierra Austral the distance is 450 leagues; it is in 42º South; it is 6000 [a misprint for 600] leagues from Cape St. Augustine; it is S.E. ¼ South from Cape St. Augustine. Nothing is known of this land except what has been seen from ships, for no one has landed on it.

One of the sketch maps by Alessandro Zorzi from around 1522 depicts the INDICVM OCCEAN, from the Cape of Good Hope, c. di bona speranza, and the eastern

coastline of Africa as far as the Red Sea (M rosso), and ARABIA in the west to the cape of Cattigara in the east.

On this map the southern continent is called Brasil. It bears names and inscriptions reading (in Zorzi’s Venetian dialect): brasil. Terra Incognita. Terra vista da portogalesi per ostro meia 600 lõtã dal cap di B[ona]S[peranza] si chiama brasil (Brazil. Terra Incognita. Land seen by Portuguese distant 600 miles south of the Cape of Good Hope: it is called Brazil). This inscription is probably based on the Soderini Letter of Vespucci’s third voyage and on the pamphlet, Newe Zeytung aus Pressilg Landt (“New Tidings from the Land of Brazil”) or on Johann Schoener’s globe of 1515, which was based on the pamphlet.

The Cape of Cattigara extends southward almost to the Tropic of Capricorn and is inscribed: giontos Locac e cattigara. (Locach and Cattigara joined). It was this cape that Columbus, Vespucci and Magellan strove to go round sailing westward in their attempts to reach the Spice Islands. Java, called giava magior, lies on the Tropic of Capricorn (much to the south of its actual location), while to its west the spice islands of nutmeg, nusa muschia, and cloves, garofano appear. Madagascar is called cephenta pinte Ins.vi This map shows in incipient form the conceptual arrangement of geography that gave rise to the Terre Austral with its promontory of Jave la Grande (Java Major) in the world maps of the Dieppe school of cartography.

Following Enciso, Gerard Mercator on his Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio of 1569 placed a cape on the South Atlantic coast of the Continent Australis in latitude 42º South decorated with a pair of parrots and with an inscription citing Enciso:

Hic in latitudine 42 gr: distancia 450 leucarum a capite bona spei et 600 a promontorio S: Augustini inventum est promont: terrae australis, vt annotauit Martinus Fernandus Denciso in sua Suma geographicae (Here in the 42nd degree of latitude at a distance of 450 leagues from the cape of Good Hope and 600 from the promontory of St. Augustine a headland of the Terra Australis was discovered as stated by Martin Fernando d’Enciso in his Suma de Geographia).vii

On subsequent maps derived from Mercator’s, this cape was called the Promontorium Terrae Australis.viii

But in the end no credible claim for a discovery of Australia emerges. A series of mistakes in directions and distances, and in conflicting applications in nomenclature, presents a confused picture. However, in the final analysis it is clear that these navigators and the mapmakers of the time were referring Brazil and the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, that is, to places other than Australia, and in fact there is no evidence of the discovery of Terra Australis, much less Australia.

Robert King(For footnotes, see end of newsletter)

Projects update

A snapshot of AOTM Division projects initiated or underway.

National Events Corporation To seek to have a National Events Corporation established to provide a permanent governmental structure and funding stream for commemorations of national significance. Proposal has been put before the Government and Opposition. Strategy to be reviewed. Government has set up a "commission" for Anzac 100th that may be a model for NEC. Will discuss with PM if opportunity arises.

Explorers Commemorative Area in Parliamentary Triangle To have an area set aside within the Parliamentary Triangle for statues, monuments and other commemorative structures to mark significant landmarks in the maritime discovery, contact and exploration of Australia. Information received that Windsor Walk has been designated, letter written to the Prime Minister as Chair of National Memorials Committee urging designation of a more prominent and visible location. Final draft of new guidelines being considered by National Memorials Committee, to be signed off by PM. Next step depends on designation of area in new guidelines

Freycinet Map 200th Anniversary 2011 To foster exhibitions and events to mark the publication of the Freycinet Map, the 1st complete map of Australia. To take place in 2011. Strategy of engaging with French community and alerting libraries and museums and other interested parties implemented. Paper being written for Journal of Australian Naval History. Continued awareness raising, drawing attention to the 1811 map. Lecture series to be given in 2011 in conjunction with national institution and possibly French Embassy

2014 – The Naming of Australia – The Flinders Map of 1814

To foster suitable commemorations of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Matthew Flinders’ map of Australia, which led to the adoption the name of Australia. National Library may stage major map exhibition based on theme of "Naming

Australia/Nommer l’Australie". A joint submission to NLA on the exhibition, its framing and content is being prepared.

2016 Dirk Hartog 400th AnniversaryConsultations have taken place with other stakeholders, including discussions with the Dutch Ambassador. Organisational structure being developed, notional events program has been developed. Aims and objectives finalised. Statement on historical significance finalised. Consultation with other stakeholders will continue, organisational arrangements and event program to be developed from those consultations.

Refuge Bay Project To ensure an appropriate memorial is placed at “The Basin” in Sydney Harbour in recognition of the formulation of the first draft of the Australian Constitution at that location. Working group formed, historical significance documented, historical maps located, bay resurveyed, article written. National Heritage List nomination prepared and submitted. Awaiting outcome of nomination for National Heritage List.

Lord Howe Island A project to document and display the maritime history of Lord Howe Island. Scope of project has been agreed. Work to continue on preparation of material for posting or publication on early history and heritage of Lord Howe Island.

Search for Deadwater Wreck

To stimulate or if necessary organise a search for the remains of the “Deadwater Wreck” north of Busselton, WA. Project now in implementation phase. Contractual arrangements being finalised. Archaeological consultant completing desktop study and to carry out site survey shortly.

Early Indigenous/Indian Contact To research pre- and early post-colonial contact and interaction between Indigenous Australians and people of Indian descent. Research plan developed. Prehistory research component and historical research component to be completed.

Research on Sailors/Aboriginal Interaction in WA (linguistics, genetics, biogeography, epidemiology, oral traditions) Collaboration with possible research project in this area. At least two DNA testing projects in progress or to commence soon. One project has received media attention. Awaiting outcome of testing and possible publication of results by one of the research projects.

Voyage Representation Project A project that will:• create graphic representations of all voyages from 1606-1814 involving contact,

exploration and charting of Australia, with explanatory details, on AOTM Division website.

• place illustrations of vessel types involved in all voyages of contact, exploration and charting on website, also including explanatory illustration of the principal structural components of such ships

• arrange publication and widespread distribution of the “Dunny Door” version of map of significant early voyages and maritime exploration of Australia’s coasts.

Project reformulated to current form. Hard draft of maps and information bites have been finalised. Design of map and information hierarchy has been developed. Ships types and main structural components identified and drawings completed and scanned. Plotting and graphical representation of voyages continuing. Information bites to be linked to voyages. Drawings of ship types and main structural

components to be added section on website

Translation Projects

Translation of selected texts relating to early Australian maritime contact and exploration. First translation (La VOC – Eylandt’s Mauritius and Rodrigues) has commenced. A number of small amendments to online translation of VOC Charter made on expert advice. La VOC translation proceeding.

Curriculum DevelopmentFostering inclusion of early history framework in a national curriculum. National Curriculum issued, includes two units on early contact. Will review curriculum content when made public.

Centre of Excellence in Hydrography that incorporates a component of historical cartography To have a Centre of Excellence established which teaches hydrography and cartography and related disciplines and technologies and incorporates a component of historical cartography. Strategic alliances being formed. Sources of funding to be identified at appropriate time.

Documentaries and Feature FilmsTo foster the production of TV documentaries and feature films on relevant aspects of early Australian history. One documentary on Janszoon and Cook voyages aired. Providing continuing assistance for documentary on visit by Dirk Hartog in 1616 and Hartog Plate. Collaboration with documentary makers to take place re search for Deadwater Wreck.

Members welcome

Meetings of the Australia on the Map Division Council are open to all AOTM members who can and would like to attend.

AOTM meets monthly at the National Library in Canberra.

Meetings are held on the first Friday of the month, at 12.30pm in the Friends Lounge of the National Library of Australia in Canberra.

ContactsHow to contact the AOTM Division

For more Australia on the Map Division,

information go to the AOTM website, www.australiaonthemap.org.au

Australasian Hydrographic SocietyChair Rupert Gerritsenemail: rupertgerritsen@ozemail.com.au

Secretary & TreasurerPeter Reyndersemail: pbreynders@yahoo.com.au

Map Matters EditorFrank Geurtsemail: fgeurts@vtown.com.au

©2010 Australia on the Map Division, Australasian Hydrographic Society.Footnotes

i Quoted in William Brooks Greenlee (ed. and transl.), The Voyage of Pedro Alvares Cabral to Brazil and India from Contemporary Documents and Narratives, London, Hakluyt Society, 1938, p.120; and in A. Donald Trounson, “Psitacorum Regio (Region of Parrots): Fact or Fiction?”, The Globe, no.30, 1988, pp.23-41 (Trounson is ignorant of the work of James R. McClymont, who simply and elegantly solved in 1889 the question posed by Trounson). The Latin version was Itinerarium Portugallensium and the High German, Newe unbekannthe Landte.ii James R. McClymont, “A Preliminary Critique of the Terra Australis Legend”, Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1889, Hobart, 1890, pp.43-52; Albert-Marie-Ferdinand Anthiaume, "Un pilote et cartographe havrais au XVIe siècle: Guillaume Le Testu", Bulletin de Géographie Historique et Descriptive, Paris, Nos 1-2, 1911, pp.135-202.iii Antoine de Smet and J. van Raemdonck (eds.), Les Spheres Terrestre & Céleste de Gérard Mercator, Bruxelles, Editions Culture et Civilisation, 1968. Harvard Map Collection http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/maps/exhibits/mercator/main.htmliv "Aulcuns portugais allans aux Indes furent par contrariété de temps transportés fort Su du cap de Bonne esperance. Lesquelz firent raport que ils avoient eu quelque congnoisance de ceste Terre. Toutefoys pour navoir esté descouverte aultrement Iay seullement ycy notée ny voullant adiouter Foy.” Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Rés. Ge. AA.625; quoted in Albert-Marie-Ferdinand Anthiaume, "Un pilote et cartographe havrais au XVIe siècle: Guillaume Le Testu", Bulletin de Géographie Historique et Descriptive, Paris, Nos 1-2, 1911, pp.135-202, n.b. p.199; translated in M R Hervé & J M Forsyth, “Australia in French geographical documents of the Renaissance”, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol. 41, pt.1, July 1955, pp.23-38, p.29. v Amerigo Vespucci, The First Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci, reprinted in facsimile and translated from the rare original edition, London, Quaritch, 1893, pp.38-39, “Third Voyage”. vi “Alberico”, vol.IV, c.169, Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Banco Rari 234; reproduced in S. Crino, "Schizzi Cartografici inediti dei Primi Anni della Scoperta dell' America", Rivista Marittima, Supplemento, vol.LXIV, no.9, Novembre1930, pp.51-52, fig.21. vii Gerhard Mercator, B. van 't Hoff and Maritiem Museum "Prins Hendrik", Gerard Mercator's Map of the World (1569), Rotterdam, Het Maritiem Museum "Prins Hendrik", 1961. viii James R. McClymont, “The Theory of an Antipodal Southern Continent during the Sixteenth Century”, Report of the Fourth Meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, Hobart, January 1892, Hobart, the Association, 1893, pp.448-469. W.A.R. Richardson “Mercator’s Southern Continent: Its Origins, Influence and Gradual Demise”, Terrae Incognitae, no.25, 1993, pp.67-98, n.b. pp.86-7.