A rare important earliest chart of Van Diemen’s land, Australia, from the account of Cooks second voyage, mapped out by Tobias Furneaux.
Cook in command of the Resolution and Furneaux on the Adventure, had set sail on July 1772. The ships were separated in fog on 8 February 1773, consequently, Furneaux made for the agreed rendezvous, at Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand. Enroute Furneaux directed his course for Van Diemen’s Land, sighting South West Cape on 9 March and becoming the first English vessel to retrace Tasman’s 1642 discoveries.
Sailing north on 15 March, Furneaux named St Patrick’s Head, St Helen’s Point, Bay of Fires and Eddystone Point, all on 17 March. Next day he noted ‘the land trenches away to the westward, which I believe forms a deep bay‘; it was, in fact, the entrance to Banks Strait. On this day islands were sighted, the land high and rocky, and the south-eastern point was named Cape Barren. He considered investigating whether a strait lay westward but decided to rejoin his commander and on 19 March the vessel ‘haul’d up for New Zealand’. Furneaux later declared that ‘it is my opinion that there is no strait between New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land’, a view he persuaded Cook to accept.
Adventure and Resolution were united in New Zealand in May 1773 and in August Furneaux re-visited Tahiti where the Tahitian Omai was taken on board. The vessels were again separated in October and Furneaux returned to England, arriving at Spithead in July 1774.
title: Kaart van Van Diemens Land Opgenoomen door Kapitein Furneaux in Maart 1773.
our translation: Map of Van Diemen Land, Mapped out by Captn. Furneaux in March 1773.
The unknown southern land (Terra Australis Incognita) was known as New Holland after the Dutch charted the west coast when blown off course during voyages to the Spice Islands (Indonesia). This is an important map for any collector of Captain Cook's discoveries which were so important they were re-issued in other countries and languages as soon as his voyages were published in England.
Captain James Cook is considered one of the most talented Surveyors & Map Makers of any age, for Cook, the production of a new chart was his principal reason for going to sea. His charts were aimed at fellow seamen so he incorporated as much information as possible while employing an economy of style and little elaboration. The quality of his charts can be confirmed by the fact that some survey details from Newfoundland to New Zealand & Australia’s East Coast could still be safely used over one hundred years later. His last piece of the New Zealand hydrographic chart was only removed in the 1990s.
Prior to the Endeavour voyage in 1768 to the South Seas, most existing charts of the Pacific were poor and imprecise and were virtually useless to Cook. Cook, therefore, had a largely blank canvas when he entered the Pacific. Four charts produced by Cook in the Pacific, during his 1st voyage, serve to demonstrate his ability and output. The charts of Tahiti, the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) New Zealand & the East Coast of Australia.
A must-have map for those interested in the early mapping of the Australian Continent.
