Overview

It was a long-held belief prior to the seventeenth century that there existed a huge continent in the Southern Hemisphere that would balance the large continents of the Northern Hemisphere. It was commonly known as the great unknown southern continent and was called either Terra Australia Incognita or Nondum Cognita. It was boldly drawn by cartographers, even though there was no evidence of its existence. The discovery of North and South America further fueled the conjecture that below the equator was a huge continent, which had yet to be discovered and explored.

Anthony van Diemen (1593-1645), as governor-general at Batavia in Dutch East Indies, was intent on the exploration of the Southern Hemisphere in order to expand commerce and accumulate wealth. The discovery of land up to this point had been merely coincidental, despite the fact that...