SOUTH COAST.

Discovery of Nuyts.
Examination of Vancouver:
of D'Entrecasteaux.
Conclusive Remarks.

NUYTS. 1627. (Atl. Pl. I.)

No historical fact seems to be less disputed, than that the South Coast
of New Holland was first discovered in January 1627: whether it were the
26th, according to _De Hondt_, or the 16th, as is expressed on
_Thevenot's_ chart, is of very little import. It is generally said, that
the ship was commanded by PIETER NUYTS; but as Nuyts, on his arrival at
Batavia, was sent ambassador to Japan, and afterwards made governor of
Formosa, it seems more probable that he was a civilian, perhaps Company's
first merchant on board, rather than captain of the ship: the land
discovered has, however, always borne his name.

The Dutch recital says--"In the year 1627, the South Coast of the
_Great_ SOUTH LAND was accidentally discovered by the ship the _Gulde
Zeepaard_, outward-bound from Fatherland, for the space of a thousand
miles."

This discovery has always been considered as of importance. A memoir was
published at Amsterdam in 1718, "to prove, that NUYTS' LAND, being in the
fifth climate, between 34° and 36° of latitude; it ought to be, like all
other countries so situated, one of the most habitable, most rich, and
most fertile parts of the world." * The journal of this discovery seems to