Reference Books
Mirror of the Australian Navigation. With an introductory essay by
Dr. Edward Duyker. (The Australian
Maritime Series, no. 5). Facsimile,
4to. Bound in quarter alum tawed goat skin with marbled papered sides
designed by Margo Snape. 15
illustrations. 196 pp.
Limited edition.
After more than one hundred years of Portuguese monopoly, at the
turn of the century, the Dutch responded by taking over control of the spice
trade and they dominated trade and navigation to the Indies during the next
centuries. In 1602 Dutch merchants trading in the East Indies joined together to
form the VOC – the Dutch East Indies Company.
It soon became by far the most
powerful of Holland’s trading houses. The wealthy and powerful Dutch merchant
Isaac Le Maire from Hoorn, however, tried to break the VOC monopoly. He set up
The Australian Compagnie and mounted an expedition, commanded by his son Jacob,
to chart a new course to the Pacific and to find the great southland. As a
result they established a new sailing route from the “old world” to the Pacific,
around Cape Horn.
Jacob Le Maire wrote a journal of this expedition, which was
published posthumously in 1622, under the title Spieghel der Australische
Navigatie. This journal provided the world with the details of the two-year’s
voyage, and ultimately led to due credit being paid to Le Maire for his
remarkable achievements. The original book of 1622 contained many engraved
illustrations and maps.
In a very few copies of this first edition the plates
are gorgeously coloured by hand. For the fist time ever, this beautiful and
contemporary handcolouring is faithfully reproduced here in this Australian
Maritime Series edition.
In this book, the original Dutch edition is accompanied
by a faithful facsimile of the English text prepared by one of the great Pacific
historians of the eighteenth century, Alexander Dalrymple.
Reference: (MapHist.COM_Reference Books_199 )
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