Chapter I: Preface

I have been asked to write a series of works which should deal with "real adventures", in parts of the world either wild and uncontrolled by any civilized government, or at any rate regions full of dangers, of wonderful discoveries; in which the daring and heroism of white men (and sometimes of white women) stood out clearly against backgrounds of unfamiliar landscapes, peopled with strange nations, savage tribes, dangerous beasts, or wonderful birds. These books would again and again illustrate the first coming of the white race into regions inhabited by people of a different type, with brown, black, or yellow skins; how the European was received, and how he treated these races of the soil which gradually came under his rule owing to his superior knowledge, weapons, wealth, or powers of persuasion. The books were to tell the plain truth, even if here and there they showed the white man to have behaved badly, or if they revealed the fact that the American Indian, the Negro, the Malay, the black Australian was sometimes cruel and treacherous.

A request thus framed was almost equivalent to asking me to write stories of those pioneers who founded the British Empire; in any case, the volumes of this series do relate the adventures of those who created the greater part of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, by their perilous explorations of unknown lands and waters. In many instances the travellers were all unconscious of their destinies, of the results which would arise from their actions. In some cases they would have bitterly railed at Fate had they known that the result of their splendid efforts was to be the enlargement of an empire under the British flag. Perhaps if they could know by now that we are striving under that flag to be just and generous to all types of men, and not to use our empire solely for the benefit of English-speaking men and women, the French who founded the Canadian nation, the Germans and Dutch who helped to create British Africa, Malaysia, and Australia, the Spaniards who preceded us in the West Indies and in New Guinea, and the Portuguese in West, Central, and East Africa, in Newfoundland, Ceylon, and Malaysia, might--if they have any consciousness or care for things in this world--be not so sorry after all that we are reaping where they sowed.

It is (as you will see) impossible to tell the tale of these early days in the British Dominions beyond the Seas, without describing here and there the adventures of men of enterprise and daring who were not of our own nationality. The majority, nevertheless, were of British stock; that is to say, they were English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, perhaps here and there a Channel Islander and a Manxman; or Nova Scotians, Canadians, and New Englanders. The bulk of them were good fellows, a few were saints, a few were ruffians with redeeming features. Sometimes they were common men who blundered into great discoveries which will for ever preserve their names from perishing; occasionally they were men of Fate, predestined, one might say, to change the history of the world by their revelations of new peoples, new lands, new rivers, new lakes, snow mountains, and gold mines. Here and there is a martyr like Marquette, or Livingstone, or Gordon, dying for the cause of a race not his own. And others again are mere boys, whose adventures come to them because they are adventurous, and whose feats of arms, escapes, perils, and successes are quite as wonderful as those attributed to the juvenile heroes of Marryat, Stevenson, and the author of _The Swiss Family Robinson_.

I have tried, in describing these adventures, to give my readers some idea of the scenery, animals, and vegetation of the new lands through which these pioneers passed on their great and small purposes; as well as of the people, native to the soil, with whom they came in contact. And in treating of these subjects I have thought it best to give the scientific names of the plant or animal which was of importance in my story, so that any of my readers who were really interested in natural history could at once ascertain for themselves the exact type alluded to, and, if they wished, look it up in a museum, a garden, or a natural history book.

I hope this attempt at scientific accuracy will not frighten away readers young and old; and, if you can have patience with the author, you will, by reading this series of books on the great pioneers of British West Africa, Canada, Malaysia, West Indies, South Africa, and Australasia, get a clear idea of how the British Colonial Empire came to be founded.

You will find that I have often tried to tell the story in the words of the pioneers, but in these quotations I have adopted the modern spelling, not only in my transcript of the English original or translation, but also in the place and tribal names, so as not to puzzle or delay the reader. Otherwise, if you were to look out some of the geographical names of the old writers, you might not be able to recognize them on the modern atlas. The pronunciation of this modern geographical spelling is very simple and clear: the vowels are pronounced _a_ = ah, _e_ = eh, _i_ = ee, _o_ = o, _ô_ = oh, _ō_ = aw, _ö_ = u in 'hurt', and _u_ = oo, as in German, Italian, or most other European languages; and the consonants as in English.

H.H. JOHNSTON.

CONTENTS

Chap. Page

I. THE GENERAL FEATURES OF AUSTRALASIA 15

II. THE FIRST HUMAN INHABITANTS OF AUSTRALASIA 46

III. SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE EXPLORERS LEAD THE WAY
TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN 88

IV. DUTCH DISCOVERIES 129

V. DAMPIER'S VOYAGES 148

VI. JAMES COOK'S FIRST VOYAGE 178

VII. NEW SOUTH WALES 225

VIII. COOK'S SECOND AND THIRD VOYAGES 252

IX. BLIGH AND THE "BOUNTY" 278

X. THE RESULTS OF THE PIONEERS' WORK 290

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

COLOURED PLATES
Page
Magellan visiting the King of Sebu _Frontispiece_

An Australian Aborigine navigating a Raft 48

Tasman's Men attacked by Natives off the Coast of New Zealand 136

Dampier and his Crew watching a Volcanic Eruption 174

Captain Cook's Arrival at Tahiti (1769) 192

Captain Cook at Botany Bay 228

Captain Bligh and his Men searching for Oysters off the Great
Barrier Reef 282

Whaling in the South Seas 298

BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS

The Biggest of the Kangaroos 38

Papuan of South-east New Guinea, near Port Moresby, and
Oceanic Negro Type from the Northernmost Solomon Islands 60

A Typical Polynesian, and an Australoid Type from Northern
Queensland 80

The Two Dutch Ships under Tasman's Command (the _Heemskerk_
and the _Zeehaen_) at Anchor in the Tonga Islands, Pacific 140

The Island of Tahiti and its extraordinary Double Canoes: as
seen by Captain Cook 206

A View of Dusky Bay, on the Great South Island of New Zealand,
with a Maori Family: as seen by Captain Cook 222

A Chief at St. Christina, in the Marquezas Archipelago, and a
Man of Easter Island 266

A Dancing Ground and Drums at Port Sandwich, Malekala
(Mallicolo) Island, New Hebrides. Tambu House (Temple)
in Background 276

* * * * *

Map of the Malay Archipelago 26

Map of Australasia 148

Map of Australia and New Zealand 300

BIBLIOGRAPHY

=Magellan's Voyage Around the World.= By Antonio Pigafetta. Translated and annotated by James Alexander Robertson. 2 Vols. Cleveland, U.S.A. The Arthur H. Clark Company. 1906. (This is the best work dealing with Magellan's voyage to the Philippines and the after events of his expedition.)

=The First Voyage Round the World by Magellan.= Translated from the accounts of Pigafetta, &c., by Lord Stanley of Alderley. London. Hakluyt Society. 1874. (This work contains a great deal of supplementary information regarding the doings of the Spaniards and Portuguese in the Pacific and Malaysia.)

=Early Voyages to Australia.= By R.H. Major. London. Hakluyt Society. 1859.

=Tasman's Journal ... Facsimiles of the Original MS. with Life of Tasman.= By J.E. Heeres. Amsterdam. 1898.

=Dampier's Voyages.= Edited by John Masefield. 2 Vols. London. E. Grant Richards. 1906.

=The History of Mankind.= By Professor Friedrich Ratzel. Translated from the second German edition by A.J. Butler, M.A. 3 Vols. London. Macmillan & Co. 1896.

=The History of the Australian Colonies.= By Edward Jenks, M.A. Cambridge University Press. 1896.

=Voyage Autour du Monde.= By De Bougainville. Paris. 1771.

=The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo.= By H. Ling Roth. London. 1896.

=Cook's Voyages.= (Original edition in 6 Vols., including plates.) London. 1772, 1777, and 1784.

Captain Cook's Journal during his First Voyage Round the World.= Edited by Captain W.J.L. Wharton, R.N., F.R.S. London. Elliot Stock. 1893.

=Journal of the Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.= Edited by Sir Joseph D. Hooker. Macmillan & Co. 1896.

=Captain James Cook.= By Arthur Kitson. London. John Murray. 1907. (This is the best life of Cook.)

=The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of H.M.S. "Bounty".= London. John Murray. 1831.

=Gonzalez's Voyage to Easter Island, 1770-1.= Translated by Bolton Glanville Corney. Hakluyt Society. 1908.

=Terre Napoléon.= (The French attempts to explore Australia at the beginning of the 19th Century.) By Ernest Scott. London. Methuen. 1910.

=Murihiku.= (A study of New Zealand history.) By the Hon. R. M'Nab. New Zealand. 1907. (A most interesting, accurate, and comprehensive work.)

=Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand, &c., in Company with the Rev. Samuel Marsden.= By John Liddiard Nicholas. 2 Vols. London. 1817.

=New Zealand: being a Narrative of Travels and Adventures, &c.= By J.S. Pollack. 2 Vols. London. Richard Bentley. 1838. (Gives interesting information regarding the whale fishery round about New Zealand.)

=Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of H.M.S. "Fly".= By J.B. Jukes. 2 Vols. London. 1847. (Treats of the exploration of the coasts of Torres Straits, South New Guinea, and Malaysia.)

=Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. "Rattlesnake".= By John Macgillivray. 2 Vols. London. 1852. (This deals with the exploration of South-east New Guinea, &c. Professor Huxley accompanied this expedition as surgeon, and contributed illustrations to the book.)

=The Malay Archipelago, &c.= By Alfred Russel Wallace. 2 Vols. London. Macmillan. 1869.

=A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago.= By H.O. Forbes. London. 1885.

=Life of Sir James Brooke.= By Sir Spencer St. John. London. 1879.

PIONEERS

IN AUSTRALASIA