as an island by itself, separated from Terra Australis. The question
naturally suggests itself, whether this chart [**] will justify the
assumption that the existence of _Torres Strait_ was known to WIJTFLIET.
I, for one, would not venture to infer as much, seeing that in other
respects this chart so closely reproduces the vague conjectures touching
a supposed Southland found on other charts of the period, that
WIJTFLIET'S open passage between New Guinea and Terra Australis cannot, I
think, be admitted as evidence that he actually knew of the existence of
Torres Strait, in the absence of any indications of the basis on which
this notion of his reposed. Such indications, however, are altogether
wanting: none are found in WIJTFLIET'S work itself, and other
contemporary authorities are equally silent on the point in question
[***].

[* See No. I of the Documents, with charts Nos. 1 and 2.]

[** COLLINGRIDGE, Discovery, p. 219, has a rough sketch of it.]

[*** Cf. also my Life of Tasman, p. 89, and Note 8.]

After this digression let us return to the stand-point taken up by the
North-Netherlanders who first set sail for the Indies in 1595. They "knew
in part" only: they were aware that they knew nothing with certitude. But
their mercantile interests very soon induced them to try to increase and
strengthen their information concerning the regions of the East. What
sort of country after all was this much-discussed New-Guinea, they began
to ask. As early as 1602 information was sought from the natives of
adjacent islands, but these proved to have "no certain knowledge of this
island of Nova Guinea" [*]. The next step taken was the sending out of a
ship for the purpose of obtaining this "certain knowledge": there were