Chapter VII. THE FAR EAST AND THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA

In the meantime the Portuguese¹ had at last won the sea route to India by way of the Cape² of Good Hope, through the agency of Vasco da Gama (1464–1524), a native of Sines. He started from Lisbon in July, 1497. He was accompanied by a pilot who had been with Diaz, and he had a map on which the Portuguese discoveries on the African coast were shown so far as they extended. On November 22 he sailed round the Cape of Good Hope; by Christmas he reached a point beyond the furthest limit of Diaz, and named it Natal³. Continuing northerly along the coast he met with a number of Arab settlements and a hostile reception from some of them; but from one he obtained a pilot across the Indian Ocean, and he reached Calicut on May 20, 1498, after a voyage of ten months and ten days. This is not the place to discuss the commercial and political difficulties which supervened upon the endeavours of the Portuguese to draw to themselves a share of the rich trade of the Indies; but Gama made a second successful voyage with this object in 1502–03, and subsequently became viceroy in India in the year of his death.

In 1511 the important town of Malacca was taken by the Portuguese, and became the starting-point for many journeys in all directions—first to Sumatra, Java,69 and the Philippines; in 1512 to the Moluccas, and in 1516 to Canton, and by 1520 a Portuguese embassy was established at Peking. After that exploration proceeded apace in the Malay islands and on the coast of China; and Borneo, New Guinea, and Celebes rapidly became important trade centres, though Japan was not reached till the beginning of the following century, when in 1542 a Portuguese sailor, Antonio de Mota, was driven to its shores. Some years later a mission was sent there by St. Francis Xavier, which brought back the first trustworthy accounts of the new country.

The Portuguese and Spanish ascendancy⁴ in the Malay Archipelago lasted until 1595; in the following year a Dutch fleet, under Cornelis Houtman, came to blows with the Portuguese off the coast of Java; in 1602 the Dutch East India Company was incorporated, and during the following decade Dutch influence was strongly established in the Archipelago. With this epoch⁵ in far eastern history is connected the discovery of Australia. At what early period the native peoples of the east—Malays, and even Chinese—had acquired knowledge of Australia, and what was the extent of that knowledge, it is impossible to determine; but Marco Polo had happened upon rumours⁶ of a southern continent. In the following chapter we shall discuss the early European conception of that continent, which gave rise to a wider problem in which the discovery of Australia is merely incidental.

A landing on Australian soil has been claimed for the French navigator Paulmyer, Sieur de Gonneville, in 1503, and Guillaume le Testu of Provence is asserted to have sighted the coast in 1531. There were certainly, about 1527–39, French pirates in the Malay Archipelago. There are similar early Portuguese claims to the first70 view of the island-continent. When Torres had passed through the strait which bears his name, south of New Guinea, in 1606, and when, in the same year, the crew of a Dutch vessel⁷, the Duyfken, effected a landing in the Gulf⁸ of Carpentaria, the first definite steps were taken towards the exploration of Australia. By 1665 the Dutch had worked out and charted a general sketch⁹ of most of the western seaboard; in 1696 William de Vlamingh re-charted a large part of it with fair accuracy. In the meantime, in 1642, Abel Janszoon Tasman had sailed from Batavia to Mauritius, thence south-eastward, till he struck the southern and eastern coasts of Tasmania, whence he passed on to obtain the first sight of New Zealand. The exploration of the Australian coasts from the direction of the Pacific belongs to following chapters.

During this period England began to interest herself in the East Indian trade, and the great efforts which were made to reach Eastern Asia by way of the arctic region will be discussed in the following chapter. In 1591 James Lancaster made an adventurous¹⁰ voyage to the Malay Peninsula; the formation of the East India Company followed. In 1600 Lancaster, in its employ, started again for the East, and laid the foundations of English commerce in the Spice Islands, visiting the Nicobars, Sumatra, and Java. He was accompanied on this voyage by Davis, famous for his work in the Arctic, who was killed on a further voyage in Eastern waters in 1605. The work of the East India Company led to the undertaking¹¹ of many important voyages of discovery. In 1607 Captain Hawkins travelled to Agra and the court of the great Mogul, and a factory was started in Japan in 1613. The men in the employ of the East India Company were not, however, the first71 Englishmen to reach Japan: William Adams, a trader, had been forced to anchor off the island of Kiu-shiu in 1600. He had been very kindly¹² received, but had not been allowed to return home. Permission, however, was at length granted to him, and, after helping¹³ to found an English settlement in Japan, he spent the rest of his life in the service of the East India Company. On one of the early expeditions sent out by the trading company in 1612, under Captain Best, the first foothold of the British in India was gained by the establishment of factories.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Englishmen were also playing a prominent part in the gradual lifting of the veil which lay over Central and Western Asia. Between 1558 and 1579 traders in London made great efforts to open up to commerce the countries round the Caspian Sea, of which vague reports had been brought back by travellers, and embassies were sent to Bokhara, Persia, and Russia. Anthony Jenkinson did much to advance the knowledge of Persia by his journey as an accredited¹⁴ representative of Queen Elizabeth in 1579; Christopher Burroughs traded across the Caspian Sea at the end of the century, and Sir Anthony and Robert Shirley stayed at the court of the Shah of Persia. During the seventeenth century Persia, Syria, and Asia Minor¹⁵ were visited by many travellers, who brought back many tales of the new and strange countries, but added little to the store of geographical¹⁶ knowledge.

Up to the end of the seventeenth century, the only people to bring any news of China and Tibet were missionaries¹⁷, of whom several made adventurous journeys from India. Tibet had been visited by Friar Odoric in 1325; but the next European to enter it was72 Antonio Andrada, in 1624. Between 1685 and 1687 P. Tachard journeyed to Cochin-China and Tongking, and made a number of astronomical¹⁸ observations, from which he was able to prove the gross errors in the longitudes¹⁹ of Ptolemy, which were still in use. After permission to enter the empire of China was granted in 1553 to the Jesuits, much valuable geographical work was done by them throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During the seventeenth century the Russians were gradually pushing towards China by way of Siberia. In 1581 a Cossack made himself master of the country round the lower course of the River Irtish; early in the next century the Sea of Okhotsk was reached by Russian hunters; in the middle of the century the River Amur was navigated²⁰ to the sea; and by its end Kamchatka had been explored, and a treaty had been concluded with the rulers of China. In 1768 and the following years an organized exploration of the whole of the Russian Empire was undertaken. Both the coasts and the inland provinces of Siberia were surveyed from Novaya Zemlya as far as the Sea of Okhotsk.

By the end of the seventeenth century the general outlines of the coast of Asia were known, though much of the interior was still unexplored. Such knowledge of central Asia as was acquired during that and the preceding century was mainly due to the travels of European missionaries following Andrada—Fra Desideri and Fra Freyre (1715), and Orazio della Penna (who was in Lhasa from 1735 to 1747), were among those who entered Tibet, while others actually carried out surveys in China in 1708–18 under the direction of the Emperor Kang-hi. The Dutchman Samuel van der Putte passed thirty-seven years of his life in Asia, and travelled73 widely, but at his death (1745) left no narrative²¹. At the close of the century English missions began to make their way into Tibet from India. George Boyle led one in 1774, and Captain Turner another in 1783. English and French traders were opening up Persia in the eighteenth century, and in Arabia the principal journey was that of Carsten Niebuhr (1762–67), sole survivor²² of a Danish scientific mission.

1 Portuguese   

n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语

参考例句：

• They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
• Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。

2 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

3 natal   

adj.出生的，先天的

参考例句：

• Many music-lovers make pilgrimages to Mozart's natal place.很多爱好音乐的人去访问莫扎特的出生地。
• Since natal day,characters possess the visual elements such as dots and strokes.文字从诞生开始便具有了点画这样的视觉元素。

4 ascendancy   

n.统治权，支配力量

参考例句：

• We have had ascendancy over the enemy in the battle.在战斗中我们已占有优势。
• The extremists are gaining ascendancy.极端分子正逐渐占据上风。

5 epoch   

n.(新)时代；历元

参考例句：

• The epoch of revolution creates great figures.革命时代造就伟大的人物。
• We're at the end of the historical epoch,and at the dawn of another.我们正处在一个历史时代的末期，另一个历史时代的开端。

6 rumours   

n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传

参考例句：

• The rumours were completely baseless. 那些谣传毫无根据。
• Rumours of job losses were later confirmed. 裁员的传言后来得到了证实。

7 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

8 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

9 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

10 adventurous   

adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的　

参考例句：

• I was filled with envy at their adventurous lifestyle.我很羨慕他们敢于冒险的生活方式。
• He was predestined to lead an adventurous life.他注定要过冒险的生活。

11 undertaking   

n.保证，许诺，事业

参考例句：

• He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
• He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。

12 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

13 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

14 accredited   

adj.可接受的；可信任的；公认的；质量合格的v.相信( accredit的过去式和过去分词 )；委托；委任；把…归结于

参考例句：

• The discovery of distillation is usually accredited to the Arabs of the 11th century. 通常认为，蒸馏法是阿拉伯人在11世纪发明的。
• Only accredited journalists were allowed entry. 只有正式认可的记者才获准入内。

15 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

16 geographical   

adj.地理的；地区(性)的

参考例句：

• The current survey will have a wider geographical spread.当前的调查将在更广泛的地域范围內进行。
• These birds have a wide geographical distribution.这些鸟的地理分布很广。

17 missionaries   

n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Some missionaries came from England in the Qing Dynasty. 清朝时，从英国来了一些传教士。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The missionaries rebuked the natives for worshipping images. 传教士指责当地人崇拜偶像。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

18 astronomical   

adj.天文学的，（数字）极大的

参考例句：

• He was an expert on ancient Chinese astronomical literature.他是研究中国古代天文学文献的专家。
• Houses in the village are selling for astronomical prices.乡村的房价正在飙升。

19 longitudes   

经度

参考例句：

• Nothing makes earth seem so to have friends at a distance; they make latitudes and longitudes. 没有什么比得上有朋在远方更使地球显得如此巨大，他们构成了纬度和经度。

20 navigated   

v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的过去式和过去分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃

参考例句：

• He navigated the plane through the clouds. 他驾驶飞机穿越云层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The ship was navigated by the North Star. 那只船靠北极星来导航。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

22 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。