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Transcriber's note:

      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

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      [~ao] as in Serr[~ao] depicts a single tilde extending
      over both letters ("a" and "o").

      Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.





[Illustration: MAGELLAN VISITING THE KING OF SEBU]


PIONEERS IN AUSTRALASIA

by

SIR HARRY JOHNSTON
G.C.M.G., K.C.B.

With Eight  Illustrations by Alec Ball







Blackie and Son Limited
London Glasgow Bombay

Printed and bound in Great Britain




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 <DW64>, 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


   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 <DW64> 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,