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Title: Early Voyages to Terra Australis, now called Australia. Author: R H Major * A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 0600361.txt Edition: 1 Language: English Character set encoding: Latin-1(ISO-8859-1)--8 bit Date first posted: April 2006 Date most recently updated: April 2006 This eBook was produced by: Col Choat and Bob Forsyth Project Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed editions which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is included. We do NOT keep any eBooks in compliance with a particular paper edition. Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this file. This eBook is made available at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg of Australia License which may be viewed online at http://gutenberg.net.au/licence.html To contact Project Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.net.au
THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY
SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, G.C.St.S., F.R.S., D.C.L., Corr. Mem. inst. F.,
Hon. Mem. Imp. Acad. Sc. St. Petersburg, &c., &c., PRESIDENT.
THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE. )
REAR-ADMIRAL C. R. DRINKWATER BETHUNE, C.B. ) VICE-PRESIDENTS.
JOHN BARROW, ESQ.
RT. HON. LORD BROUGHTON.
THE LORD ALFRED SPENCER CHURCHILL.
CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE, Esq., F.S.A.
RT. HON. SIR DAVID DUNDAS.
SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S.
JOHN FORSTER, ESQ.
LIEUT.-GEN. CHARLES RICHARD FOX.
R. W. GREY, Esq., M.P.
EGERTON HARCOURT, ESQ.
JOHN WINTER JONES, ESQ, F.S.A.
HIS EXCELLENCY THE COUNT DE LAVRADIO.
R. H. MAJOR, ESQ., F.S.A.
THE EARL OF SHEFFIELD.
RT. HON. LORD TAUNTON.
CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, ESQ., HONORARY SECRETARY.
* * * * *
TO
SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, G.C.St.S, D.C.L., F.R.S., ETC., ETC., ETC.
DEAR SIR RODERICK,
You have kindly permitted me to dedicate to you this result of my
investigations respecting the early explorations of Australia.
To none can a book on such a subject be more appropriately offered
than to yourself. To you geographers are pre-eminently indebted for
the promotion of Australian exploration in recent times, while your
ever-memorable scientific anticipation of the discovery of the
Australian gold fields must connect your name inseparably with the
history of a country, whose future greatness can be foreseen,
but cannot be estimated.
I remain,
DEAR SIR RODERICK,
With much respect,
Yours very faithfully,
R. H. MAJOR.
British Museum, August, 1859.
A MEMORIAL ADDRESSED TO HIS CATHOLIC MAJESTY PHILIP THE THIRD, KING OF SPAIN, by Dr. Juan Luis Arias, respecting the exploration, colonization, and conversion of the Southern Land, translated from the Spanish original
RELATION OF LUIS VAEZ DE TORRES, concerning the discoveries of QUIROS, as his Almirante. Dated Manila, July 12, 1607, a translation, nearly literal, by Alexander Dalrymple, Esq., from a Spanish manuscript copy in his possession, reprinted from App. to vol. ii of Burney's "Discoveries in the South Sea"
EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK OF DISPATCHES FROM BATAVIA; commencing January the 15th, 1644, and ending November the 29th following, reprinted from Dalrymple's "Collections Concerning Papua"
THE VOYAGE AND SHIPWRECK OF CAPTAIN FRANCIS PELSART, in the "Batavia," on the coast of New Holland, and his succeeding adventures, translated from Trevenot's "Recueil de Voyages Curieux"
VOYAGE OF GERRIT THOMASZ POOL TO THE SOUTH LAND. Translated from Valentyn's "Beschryvinge van Banda"
ACCOUNT OF THE WRECK OF THE SHIP "DE VERGULDE DRAECK" ON THE SOUTH LAND, and the expeditions undertaken, both from Batavia and the Cape of Good Hope, in search of the survivors and money and goods which might be found on the wreck, and of the small success which attended them. Extracted from MS.documents at the Hague, and translated from the Dutch
DESCRIPTION OF THE WEST COAST OF THE SOUTH LAND by Captain Samuel Volkersen, of the pink "Waeckende Boey," which sailed from Batavia on the 1st of January 1658, and returned on the 19th of April of the same year. Extracted from MS. Documents at the Hague and translated from the Dutch
EXTRACT TRANSLATED FROM BURGOMASTER WITSEN'S "NOORD EN OOST TARTARYE"
ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS OF CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER on the coast of New Holland, in 1687-88, being an extract from his "New Voyage round the World"
EXTRACT FROM SLOAN MS., 3236, entitled "The Adventures of William Dampier, with others (1686-87), who left Captain Sherpe in the South Seas, and travaled back over land through the country of Darien"
SOME PARTICULARS RELATING TO THE VOYAGE OF WILLEM DE VLAMINGH to New Holland in 1696. Extracted from. MS. Documents at the Hague and translated from the Dutch
EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE MADE TO THE UNEXPLORED SOUTH LAND, by order of the Dutch East India Company, in the years 1696 and 1697, by the hooker "De Nyptang," the ship "De Geelvink," and the galiot "De Wesel," and the return to Batavia. From MS. Documents at the Hague: translated from the Dutch
ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS OF CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER on the coast of New Holland, in 1699, being an extract from "a Voyage to New Holland, etc., in the year 1699"
A WRITTEN DETAIL OF THE DISCOVERIES AND NOTICEABLE OCCURRENCES in the voyage of the fluyt "Vossenbosch," the sloop "D'Waijer," and the patsjallang "Nova Hollandia," despatched by the government of India, anno 1705, from Batavia by way of Timor to New Holland. From MS. Documents at the Hague: translated from the Dutch
THE HOUTMAN'S ABROLHOS in 1727, translated from a publication entitled "De Houtman's Abrolhos", by Captain P. A. Loupe,of the Dutch Navy.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Java la Grande
The Londe of Java
Tasman's Track
Coast visited by the Waeckende Boey and
Emeloort, two maps
Terra Australis (not reproduced in theis ebook)
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When, at a period comparatively recent in the world's history, the discovery was made that, on the face of the as yet unmeasured ocean, there existed a western continent which rivalled in extent the world already known, it became a subject of natural enquiry whether a fact of such momentous importance could for so many thousands of years have remained a secret. Nor was the enquiry entirely without response. Amid the obscurity of the past some faint foreshadowings of the great reality appeared to be traceable. The poet with his prophecy, the sage with his mystic lore, and the unlettered seaman who, with curious eye, had peered into the mysteries of the far-stretching Atlantic, had each, as it now appeared enunciated a problem which at length had met with its solution[*1].
In these later days, when the enquiry has assumed gigantic proportions, and the facilities of investigation
[*1) Reference is here made, 1stly, to that most remarkable and often quoted passage from the Medea of Seneca:
Venient annis
Saecula seris, quibus Oceanus
2ndly, to the island of Atlantis, described by Plato, in the Timaeus, as lying in the Atlantic, opposite the Pillars of Hercules, and exceeding in size the whole of Africa and Asia.
And 3rdly, to the imaginary island of St. Brandan, seen at intervals far out in the Atlantic by the inhabitants of the Canary Islands.
It may not be unacceptable here to mention that there is one passage among the writings of the ancients far more minute and affirmative in its description than any of the foregoing, which has been thought by various learned commentators to refer to America, but which the editor has not found hitherto quoted, in that light, by any English author. In a fragment of the works of Theopompus, preserved by Aelian, is the account of a conversation between Silenus and Midas, king of Phrygia, in which the former says that Europe, Asia, and Africa, were lands surrounded by the sea; but that beyond this known world was another island, of immense extent, of which he gives a description. The account of this conversation, which is too lengthy here to give in full, was written three centuries and a half before the Christian era. Not to trouble the reader with Greek, we give an extract from the English version by Abraham Fleming, printed in 1576, in the amusingly quaint but vivid language of the time.
"THE THIRDE BOOKE OF AELIANUS. PAGE 37.
¶ Of the familiaritie of Midas the Phrigian, and Selenus, and of certaine circumstances which he incredibly reported.
"Theopompus declareth that Midas the Phrygian and Selenus were knit in familiaritie and acquaintance. This Selenus was the sonne of a nymphe inferiour to the gods in condition and degree, but superiour to men concerning mortalytie and death. These twaine mingled communication of sundrye thinges. At length, in processe of talke, Selenus tolde Midas of certaine ilandes, named Europia, Asia, and Libia, which the ocean sea circumscribeth and compasseth round about; and that without this worlde there is a continent or percell of dry lande, which in greatnesse (as hee reported) was infinite and unmeasurable; that it nourished and maintained, by the benefite of the greene medowes and pasture plots, sundrye bigge and mighty beastes; that the men which inhabite the same climats exceede the stature of us twise, and yet the length of there life is not equall to ours; that there be many and diuers great citties, manyfold orders and trades of living; that their lawes, statutes, and ordinaunces, are different, or rather clean contrary to ours. Such and lyke thinges dyd he rehearce."
The remainder of this curious conversation, however apparently fabulous, deserves attention from the thoughtful reader.]
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have been simultaneously increased, much has been done towards bringing to light the evidence of various ascertained or possible visitations from the Old World to the New, which had previously remained unknown. A summary of them has already been laid before the members of the Hakluyt Society by the editor of the present volume, in his introduction to the "Select Letters of Columbus", and requires no repetition here.
Of the future results of that momentous discovery, what human intelligence can foresee the climax? Already the northern half of that vast portion of the
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globe is mainly occupied by a section of the Anglo-Saxon family, earnest and active in the development of its native energies; and among these, again, are many who look back with eager curiosity to every yet minuter particular respecting the early history of their adopted country.
A new field of colonization, second only to that of America, and constituting, as far as is at present known, the largest island in our globe, has in far more recent times been opened up by a slow and
{Page: iv}
gradual progress to a branch of the same expansive family. A future but little inferior in importance may, without much imaginative speculation, be assigned to them, and from them likewise may be reasonably expected the most curious inquiry as to the earliest discoveries by their predecessors of a land so vast in its dimensions, so important in its characteristics, and yet so little known or reasoned upon by the numerous generations of mankind that has passed away before them.
In endeavouring to meet this demand it must be premised, that while the main object proposed in this volume is to treat of the early indications of the island now recognised as Australia, anterior to the time of Captain Cook, it is impossible to deal with the real or supposed discoveries which may have taken place prior to that date, without referring at the same time to the discovery of the adjacent island of New Guinea and of the great southern continent, of both of which what we now call Australia was in those times regarded as forming a part. The investigation is one of the most interesting character in all stages, but beset with doubts and difficulties arising from a variety of causes.
The entire period up to the time of Dampier, ranging over two centuries, presents these two phases of obscurity; that in the sixteenth century (the period of the Portuguese and Spanish discoveries) there are indications on maps of the great probability of Australia having been already discovered; while in the
{Page: v}
seventeenth century there is documentary evidence that its coasts were touched upon or explored by a considerable number of Dutch voyages but the documents immediately describing these voyages have not been found.
That, in so far as regards the Portuguese, this obscurity is mainly due to jealous apprehension lest lands of large extents, and great importance in the southern seas might fall into the hands of rival powers to their own displacement or prejudice, may not only be suspected, but seems to be affirmable from historical evidence.
It is stated by Humboldt (Histoire de la Geographie du Nouveau Continent, tom. iv, p. 70), upon the authority of the letters of Angelo Trevigiano, secretary to Domenico Pisani, ambassador from Venice to Spain, that the kings of Portugal forbad upon pain of death the exportation of any marine chart which showed the course to Calicut. We find also in Ramusio (Discorso sopra el libro di Odoardo Barbosa, and the Sommario delle Indie Orientali, tom. i, p. 287 b) a similar prohibition implied. He says that these books "were for many years concealed and not allowed to be published, for convenient reasons that I must not now describe". He also speaks of the great difficulty he himself had in procuring a copy, and even that an imperfect one, from Lisbon. "Tanto possono," he says, "gli interessi del principe." Again, in tom. iii of the same collection, in the account of the "Discorso d'un gran Capitano del Mare Francese del Luogo di Dieppa," etc., now known as the voyage of Jean
{Page: vi}
Parmentier to Sumatra in 1529, and in all probability by his companion and eulogist, the poet Pierre Crignon, the covetousness and exclusiveness of the Portuguese are inveighed against. "They seem," he says, "to have drunk of the dust of the heart of king Alexander, for that they seem to think that God made the sea and the land for them, and that if they could have locked up the sea from Finisterre to Ireland it would have been done long ago," etc.
Imputations of a similar nature are thrown on the Dutch East India Company by so well informed a man as Sir William Temple, ambassador at the Hague in the reign of Charles II, and who is a very high authority on all matters concerning the republic of the United Provinces. In his "Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning," he makes the following curious statement, which we give in extenso as otherwise bearing upon the subject of which we treat. See vol. iii of Sir William Temple's Works, p. 457.
"But the defect or negligence [in the progress of discovery since the invention of the compass] seems yet to have been greater towards the south, where we know little beyond 35° and that only by the necessity of doubling the Cape of Good Hope in our East India voyages: yet a continent has long since been found out within 15° to the south, about the length of Java, which is marked by the name of New Holland in the maps, and to what extent none knows, either, to the south, the east, or
{Page: vii}
the west; yet the learned have the opinion, that there must be a balance of earth on that side of the line in some proportion to what there is on the other; and that it cannot be all sea from 30° to the south pole, since we have found land to above 65°, towards the north. But our navigators that way have been confined to the roads of trade, and our discoveries bounded by what we can manage to a certain degree of gain. And I have heard it said among the Dutch, that their East India Company have long since forbidden, and under the greatest penalty any further attempts of discovering that continent, having already more trade in those parts than they can turn to account, and fearing some more populous nation of Europe might make great establishments of trade in some of those unknown regions, which might ruin or impair what they have already in the Indies."
Although the statement of so well informed and so impartial man as Sir William might almost be considered as conclusive, the Dutch have very naturally been unwilling to abide by this severe judgement. An indignant remonstrance against the imputation that they secreted and suppressed the accounts of their early voyages, was published in August 1824, in vol. ii of Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, by Mr. J. van Wijck Roelandszoon, who attributed the origin of this charge to ignorance of the Dutch language on the part of those who made it. In vindication of his assertions he referred to the publication, in 1618, of Linschoten's voyages, both to the North
{Page: viii}
and the East Indies, also Schouten and Lemaire's "Circumnavigation of the Globe" in 1615-18, which was published in 1646. He referred to the fact that the voyages of Van Noort, l'Hermite, and Spilbergen had also, been published, and stated that, generally speaking, such had been the case with all the voyages of the Dutch as early as the year 1646, and that their discoveries were exactly laid down in the 1660 edition of the maps of P. Goos.
He furthermore announced (in reply to an invitation which had been given to the learned men of Holland, to fill up the gaps in their history which had been complained of), that one of the learned societies of Holland had offered a prize for a careful essay on the discoveries of the Dutch mariners.[*1]
In publishing this remonstrance, the editor of the Nouvelles Annales des Voyages judiciously observed, that if the reproach of jealousy which applied to the Portuguese, did not apply to the Dutch, it was at least true that some sort of carelessness had prevented either the preservation or the publication of a great number of Dutch narratives, amongst which he quoted those of De Nuyts, Van Vlaming, etc., to the coasts of New Holland. We must not, however, lose sight of the fact, that Sir William Temple's charge of want
[*1) With respect to the essay for which the learned society referred to (the Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen of Utrecht) had offered a prize, it was published in that society's Transactions in 1827, under the title of " Bennet and Van Wijck's Verhandeling over de Nederlandsche Ontdekkingen." The editor, who has examined this work carefully, can state that it supplies no information in addition to that which we had already possessed.]
{Page: ix}
of liberality is directed, not against the Dutch in general, but only against the East India Company; and further, that it contains two different imputations; first, that the Company forbade exploration; and secondly, that they prohibited the publication of those already made.
As to the first of these two charges it may have been just. The commercial spirit of the seventeenth century had a general character of narrowness, from which the East India Company was not exempt. The conduct here imputed to them was in accordance with the regular and wholesale destruction of spices, by which they tried to keep up the value of this commodity. Too much importance, however, ought not to be attached even to Sir William's testimony, when, as in the present case, it stands entirely alone. Every hostile statement with regard to the Dutch East India Company made in Sir William's time, may be regarded as at least likely to have been dictated by party spirit. The directors of the East India Company were so closely connected with the ruling but unpopular party presided over by the De Witts, that the enemy of the one was also the enemy of the others, and, among these enemies were a number of the most eminent men, many of them distinguished geographers.
As to the second charge, it must be allowed in justice to the Company, that such secrecy as is here imputed to them is not to be traced in their general conduct. Commelyn, the compiler of the celebrated Begin ende Voortgangh, published in 1646, had
{Page: x}
undoubtedly access to the Company's archives, and he discloses many facts which the Company would seem much more interested to hide than what meagre knowledge they possessed of Australia; Godfried, Udemans, Dr. 0. Dapper, Witsen, Valentyn, and besides these a host of map-makers and geographers, were largely indebted to the Company for geographical materials. If we may form any judgement from the dedications we find in books of the period, we must consider their encouragement of the study of their dominions as almost on a par with that afforded at the present day by the English East India Company.
The fact that many accounts of Australian voyages which the Company possessed were never published, may be accounted for in a simpler and more honourable manner. The Dutch voyages and travels that were published were plainly intended for a large circle of readers, and were got up as cheaply as possible. Thus, though thousands and thousands of copies were sold, they have all now become scarce. A voyage which did not contain strange adventures or striking scenes, had no chance of popularity and so it remained unpublished. Thus, among other instances, a picturesque account of Japan was published in, the Begin ende Voortgangh, whilst the extremely important account of De Vries's voyage to the same part of the world, which is far richer in geographical materials than in interesting incidents, has remained in manuscript till recently edited by Captain Leupe, of the Dutch navy.
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It is with pleasure that we indulge the hope that the veil which has thus hung over those valuable materials is likely, before very long, to be entirely removed. The archives of the Dutch East India Company, a yet unsifted mass of thousands of volumes, and myriads of loose papers, have a short time since been handed over to the State Archives at the Hague, where the greatest liberality is shown in allowing access to the treasures they possess. Meanwhile, the editor of the present volume need hardly plead any excuse for not having attempted what no foreigner be his stay in Holland ever so long, could possibly expect to accomplish; and he must leave to those who will take up this matter after him, the satisfaction of availing themselves of materials the importance of which he knows, and the want of which he deeply deplores.
As has been already stated, in the earlier and more indistinct periods of Australian discovery even when some portions of the vast island had been already lighted on, it remained a doubt whether New Guinea and the newly seen lands did not form part of a great southern continent, in which tradition in the first place and subsequent discoveries, had already established a belief.
The very existance of the belief in an extensive southern continent at those early periods presents a twofold cause of doubt. It engendered at the time the supposition that every island to the south of what was previously known, and of which the north part only had been seen, formed a portion of that continent;
{Page: xii}
while to us who, from this distance of time look back for evidence, the inaccurate representation of such discoveries on maps, in or near the longitude of Australia (for longitude could be but laxly noticed in those days) leaves the doubt whether that continent may not have been visited at the period thus represented. Hence, manifestly, it will be requisite to bear well in mind this broadly accepted belief in the existence of a great southern continent, if we would form a right judgement respecting those supposed indications of Australia which are presented on maps of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries.
Among the very early writers, the most striking quotation that the editor has lighted upon in connection with the southern continent, is that which occurs in the Astronomicon of Manilius, lib. i, lin. 234 et seq., where, after a lengthy dissertation, he says:--
"Ex quo colligitur terrarum forma rotunda: Hanc circum variae gentes hominum atque ferarum, Aeriaeque colunt volueres. Pars ejus ad aretos Eminet, Austrinis pars est habitabilis oris, Sub pedibusque jacet nostris."
The latter clause of this sentence, so strikingly applying to the lands in question, has been quoted as a motto for the title-page of this volume. The date at which Manilius wrote, though not exactly ascertained, is supposed, upon the best conclusions to be drawn from the internal evidence supplied by his poem, to be of the time of Tiberius.
Aristotle also, in his Meteorologica, lib. ii, cap. 5, has
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a passage which, though by no means distinct as the preceding one speaks of two segments of the habitable globe, one towards the north, the other, towards the south pole, and which have the form of a drum. Aratus, Strabo, and Geminus have also handed down a similar opinion, that the torrid zone was occupied throughout its length by the ocean, and that the band of sea divided our continent from another, situated, as they suppose, in the southern hemisphere.[*]
To come down, however, to a later period, the editor is enabled through the researches of his lamented friend, the late learned and laborious Vicomte de Santarem, to show from early manuscript maps and other geographical monuments, how this belief in the existence of a great southern continent was entertained anterior to the discoveries of the Portuguese in the Pacific Ocean. In his Essai sur l'Histoire de la Cosmographie et de la Cartographie du Moyen Age, vol. i, p. 229, the Vicomte informs us that "Certain cartographers of the middle ages, still continue to represent the Antichthone in their maps of the world in accordance with the belief that, beyond the ocean of Homer, there was an inhabited country, another temperate region, called the "opposite earth", which it was impossible to reach, principally on account of the torrid zone.
"The following are the maps of the world which represent this theory:--
[*1) See Aratus, Phaenom., 537; Strabo, 1. 7, p. 130, and 1. 17; apud Geminum, Elementa Astronomica, c. lxiii, in the Uranologia, p. 31.]
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"1. The map of the world in a manuscript of Macrobius, of the tenth century; 2. The map of the world, in a manuscript of the eighth century in the Turin library; 3. That of Cecco d'Ascoli, of the thirteenth century; 4. The small map of the world, in one of the manuscript maps of the thirteenth century, of l'Image du Monde, by Gauthier de Metz, MS. No. 7791, Bibliotheque Imperiale, Paris; 5. That of an Icelandic manuscript of the thirteenth century, taken from the Antiquitates Americanae; 6. That in a manuscript of Marco Polo, of the fourteenth century (1350), in the Royal Library of Stockholm; 7. That on the reverse of a medal of the fifteenth century, in the Cabinet of M. Crignon de Montigny.
"The cartographers of the middle ages have admitted that as a reality which, even to the geographers of antiquity, was merely a theory."
The earliest assertion of the discovery of a land bearing a position on early maps analogous to that of Australia has been made in favour of the Chinese, who have been supposed to have been acquainted with its coasts long before the period of European navigation to the east. Thevenot, in his Relations de Divers Voyages Curieux, part i, Preface: Paris, 1663, says: The southern land, which now forms a fifth part of the world, has been discovered at different periods. The Chinese had knowledge of it long ago, for we see that Marco Polo marks two great islands to the south-east of Java, which it is probable that he learned from the Chinese." The statements of
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Marco Polo, which we quote from Marsden's translation, run thus:--
"Upon leaving the island of Java, and steering a course between south and south-west, seven hundred miles, you fall in with two islands, the larger of which is named Sondur, and the other Kondur. Both being uninhabited, it is unnecessary to say more respecting them. Having run the distance of fifty miles from these islands, in a south-easterly direction, you reach an extensive and rich province, that forms a part of the main land, and is named Lochac. It's inhabitants are idolaters. They have a language peculiar to themselves, and are governed by their own king, who pays no tribute to any other, the situation of the country being such as to protect it from any hostile attack. Were it assailable, the Grand Khan would not have delayed to bring it under his dominion. In this country sappan or brazil wood is produced in large quantities. Gold is abundant to a degree scarcely credible; elephants are found there; and the objects of the chase, either with dogs or birds, are in plenty. From hence are exported all those porcelain shells, which, being carried to other countries, are there circulated for money, as has been already noticed. Here they cultivate a species of fruit called berchi, in size about that of a lemon, and having a delicious flavour. Besides these circumstances there is nothing further that requires mention, unless it be that the country is wild and mountainous, and is little frequented by strangers; whose visits the king discourages, in order that his treasures and other secret matters of his realm may be as little known to the rest of the world as possible.
"Departing from Lochac and keeping a southerly course for five hundred miles, you reach an island named Pentam, the coast of which is wild and uncultivated, but the woods abound with sweet scented trees. Between the province of
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Lochac and this island of Pentam, the sea, for a space of sixty miles, is not more than four fathoms deep, and this obliges those who navigate it to lift the rudders of their ships, in order that they may not touch the bottom. After sailing these sixty miles in a south-easterly direction, and then proceeding thirty miles further, you arrive at an island, in itself a kingdom, named Malaiur, which is likewise the name of its city. The people are governed by a king, and have their own peculiar language. The town is large and well built. A considerable trade is there carried on in spices and drugs, with which the place abounds. Nothing else that requires notice presents itself. Proceeding onwards from thence, we shall now speak of Java Minor."
That this description does not apply to Australia the reader of the present day may readily conclude. It has received its explanation in the judicious notes of Marsden, who shows how, from the circumstances, it is highly probable that Lochac is intended for some part of the country of Cambodia, the capital of which was named Loech, according to the authority of Gasper de Cruz, who visited it during the reign of Sebastian, king of Portugal. See Purchas, vol. iii, p. 169. The country of Cambodia, moreover, produces the gold, the spices, and the elephants which Marco Polo attributes to Lochac. Pentam is reasonably supposed by Marsden to be Bintam, and the island and kingdom of Malaiur (Maletur, in the Basle edition of 1532, included in the Novus Orbis of Grynaeus) to be the kingdom of the Malays.
In the early engraved maps of the sixteenth century, however, we see the effects of this description exhibited, in a form calculated to startle the inquirer
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respecting the early indications of Australia. On these maps we find laid down an extensive development of the great Terra Australis Incognita trending northward to New Guinea; with which, on some of these maps, it is made to be continuous, while on others it is divided from it; and on the northernmost portion of this remarkable delineated land occur the legends: "Beach provincia aurifere", "Iucach regnum", "Maletur regnum scatens aromatibus", "Vasitissimas hic esse regiones ex M. Pauli Veneti et Ludovici Vartomanni scriptis peregrinationibus liquido constat".
We have already explained from Marsden's notes the reasonable rendering of the name of Lucach or Lochac. The name of Beach, or rather Boesch, is another form of the same name, which crept into the Basle edition of Marco Polo in 1532, and was blunderingly repeated by cartographers; while for Maletur we have the suggestion of the Burgomaster Witsen, in the Noord en Oost Tartarye fol. 169, that it is taken from Maleto, on the north side of the island of Timor, a suggestion rendered null by the fact, apparently unknown to Witsen, that Maletur, as already stated, was but a misspelling in the Basle edition for Malaiur. The sea in which, on these early maps, this remarkable land is made to lie, is called, Mare Lantchidol, another perplexing piece of misspelling upon which all cartographers have likewise stumbled, and which finds its explanation in the Malay words 'Laut Kidol', or 'Chidol' The South Sea. As, however, this striking protrusion to the northward of
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a portion of the Great Terra Australis Incognita on the early maps in a position so nearly corresponding with that of Australia, may not have emanated solely from the description of Marco Polo, the editor proposes to defer further allusion to these maps until they present themselves in their due chronological order among the documents and data of which he will have to speak.
The earliest discovery of Australia to which claim has been laid by any nation is that of a Frenchman, a native of Honfleur, named Binot Paulmier de Gonneville, who sailed from that port in June 1503, on a voyage to the South Seas. After doubling the Cape of Good Hope, he was assailed by a tempest which drove him on an unknown land, in which he received the most hospitable reception, and whence, after a stay of six months, he returned to France, bringing with him the son of the king of the country. The narrative is given in a judicial declaration made by him before the French Admiralty, dated the 19th of June, 1505, and first published in the Memoires touchant l'Etablissment d'une Mission Chretiennes dans la Terre Australe, printed at Paris by Cramoisy, 1663, and dedicated to Pope Alexander VII, by an "ecclesiastque originaires de cette mesme terre." The author gives his name in no other way than by these initials, "J.P.D.C., Pretre Indien." This priest, as well as his father and grandfather, was born in France; but his great grand-father was one of the Australians, or natives of the southern world, whom Gonneville had brought into France at
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his return from that country, and whom he afterwards married to one of his own relations there, he having embraced Christianity. The author of the account himself being animated by a strong desire of preaching the gospel in the country of his ancestors, spent his whole life in endeavouring to prevail on those who had the care of foreign missions to send him there, and to fulfil the promise the first French navigator had made, that he should visit that country again. Unfortunately Gonneville's journals, on his return, fell into the hands of the English, and were lost. The author, however, collected his materials from the traditions and loose papers of his own family, and the judicial declaration above mentioned. This account was to have been presented to the Pope, but it never was printed till it fell into the hands of the bookseller Cramoisy. The narrative is to the effect that some French merchants, being tempted by the success of the Portuguese under Vasco de Gama, determined upon sending a ship to the Indies by the same route which he had sailed. The ship was equipped at Honfleur. "The Sieur de Gonneville, who commanded her, weighed anchor in the month of June 1503, and doubled the Cape of Good Hope, where he was assailed by a furious tempest, which made him lose his route, and abandoned him to the wearisome calm of an unknown sea". "Not knowing what course to steer, the sight of some birds coming from the south determined them to sail in that direction in the hope of finding land. They found what they desired, that is to say, a great country
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which, in their relations, was named the Southern India, according to the custom, at that time, of applying indifferently the names of the Indies to every country newly discovered." They remained six months at this land; after which the crew of the ship refused to proceed further, and Gonneville was obliged to return to France. When near home, he was attacked by an English corsair, and plundered of every thing; so that his journals and descriptions were entirely lost. On arriving in port, he made a declaration of all that had happened in the voyage to the Admiralty, which declaration was dated July the 19th, 1505, and was signed by the principal officers of the ship.
In one part of the relation, this great southern land is said to be not far out of the direct route to the East Indies. The land of Gonneville has been supposed by some to be in a high southern latitude, and nearly on the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope; and Duval and Nolin placed it on their charts to the south-west of the Cape, in 48° south: The President De Brosses, author of Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes, Paris, 1756, 2 vols., conjectured that it was south of the Moluccas, and that it was, in fact, the first discovery of the Terra Australis, since named New Holland.
Gonneville, however, is represented as carrying on during his stay a friendly intercourse with the natives, whom he mentions as having made some advances in civilization. The account is quite incompatible with the character for treachery and barbarous
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cruelty, which we have received of the natives of North Australia from all the more recent voyagers.
Let the whole account, says Burney, be reconsidered without prepossession, and the idea that will immediately and most naturally occur is that the Southern India discovered by Gonneville was Madagascar. De Gonneville having doubled (passed round) the Cape, was by tempests driven into calm latitudes, and so near to this land, that he was directed thither by the flight of birds. The refusal of the crew to proceed to Eastern India, would scarcely have happened if they had been so far advanced to the East as New Holland.
A more reasonable claim than the preceding to the discovery of Australia in the early part of the sixteenth century, may be advanced by the Portuguese from the evidence of various MS. maps still extant, although the attempt made recently to attach the credit of this discovery to Magalhaens in the famous voyage of the Victoria round the world in 1520, is, as we shall endeavour to show, perfectly untenable. The claim of this honour for Spain is thus asserted in the "Compendio Geografico Estadistico de Portugal y sus posesiones ultramarinas", by Aldama Ayala, 8 vo, Madrid, 1855, p. 482. "The Dutch lay claim to the discovery of the continent of Australia in the seventeenth century, although it was discovered by Fernando Magalhaens, a Portuguese, by order of the Emperor Charles V, in the year 1520, as is proved by authentic documents, such as the atlas of Fernando Vaz Dourado, made in Goa in 1570, on one of the
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maps in which is laid down the coast of Australia. The said magnificent atlas, illuminated to perfection, was formerly preserved in the Carthusian Library at Evora".
A similar claim was also made for their distinguished countryman, though the voyage was made in the service of Spain, in an almanack published at Angra, in the island of Terceira, by the government press, anno 1832, and composed, it is supposed, by the Viscount Sa' de Bandeira, the present minister of marine at Lisbon. In the examination of this subject, the editor has had the advantage of the assistance of a friend in Lisbon, who, in his research among the remaining literary wealth of that city, has exhibited an earnestness and an amount of care and thought but too rarely witnessed in delegated investigations. The reader will not wonder that the zeal of a true lover of literature has been thrown into these researches, when he learns that they have been made by Dr. John Martin, the well-known author (for it would be wrong to call him the editor) in days now long gone by, of that most interesting and important work, "Mariner's Tonga Islands". As will be presently seen, the whole question of the possibility of the discovery of Australia having been made by the Portuguese, in the first half of the sixteenth century, is sufficiently enigmatical to call for a great extent of inquiry, and the editor's venerable and honoured friend, though now grown old in the service of science and literature, has entered into the subject with a cordiality and ardour, commensurate with the puzzling nature of the subject.
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But first with respect to the claim on behalf of Magalhaens, as based upon the map of Vaz Dourado. The following are extracts from Dr. Martin's reports upon the map.
"On inspecting the map and examining the more southern regions, I found that the island of Timor was the most southern land laid down in lat. 10° S., which is its true situation, while further to the south all was blank, excepting certain ornamental devices as far as about latitude 17° or 18°, which was the lowest margin of the map. To the west and east the map was bordered by a scale of latitude, in single degrees; but this map did not occupy the whole sheet of vellum, for to the right of the eastern scale of latitude something else was laid down, viz., a line of coast running with a little southing from west to east, with many rivers and names of places upon it, and this notice underneath, 'Esta Costa Descubrio Fernao de Magalhaes naturall portuges pormandado do emperador Carllos o anno 1520'.
"If the whole sheet is meant to constitute one map and referable to the same scale of latitude, then the coast in question is not where New Holland ought to be, being north of Timor and much too far to the eastward. On turning over to the next sheet (in the atlas) there is a similar line of coast laid down with precisely the same notice (above quoted) at the bottom, and evidently a continuation of the same coast upon the same scale. I send a list of the names, which I have made out as well as I could, for they are very small and several letters are not very clear.
"The reasons why I cannot consider this coast as part of New Holland, are, 1st. It is at least one thousand five hundred miles in length, and nearly straight as a whole; though indented in its parts; 2ndly. That it is represented to have numerous rivers, which are very rare in New Holland (on the coast); 3rdly. That it is considerably distant from its true
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place to the south of Timor, which in the atlas is laid down correctly as to latitude, although 4thly. There is plenty of room for it on the map. I have thought it might be part of the coast of South America, where Magelhaens was long detained, and that it is put down as a sort of memorandum of the great extent of coast which he discovered in the first circumnavigation of the globe. With indomitable perseverance he pushed his way through the straits that bear his name into the Pacific, and in this vast ocean he sailed about for three months and twenty days (says Pigafetta, who accompanied him and wrote an account of the voyage) without discovering anything except two small desert islands, until he arrived at the Phillippines. Had he really discovered so much of the coast of a great southern continent, Spain, in whose service he was, might well have boasted of the feat, and Portugal, whose native he was, might have defended the claims of the man who performed it, and not let so bold and noble a discovery (for those times) remain so long in doubt.
"Now with respect to America: if we examine carefully the list of names upon this line of coast, we shall find some that have a resemblance to those on the coast of America, along which Malelhaen pursued his course. One of these, C. de las Virgines, is found in some maps just at the entrance of the Straits of Magellan, on the eastern side. I do not see any name like Fromose[*1], but there is the name Gaia Fromosa, in or near the Straits of Magellan (in the same atlas). In the enclosed list of names we have also Terra Gigates or Terra Gigantes, and may not this be the Patagonians?
[*1) This apparently Gallicised Portugese name is here referred to by Dr. Martin in allusion to its occurrence on certain early French maps to be treated of hereafter.]
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"On a closer and more minute examination of Dourado's map, and others, I think it may now be made evident that the coast said to have been discovered by Magelhaens, in 1520, and mistaken by Sa de Bandeira and others, for part of the coast of New Holland, is no other than the northern coast of New Guinea.
"Now New Guinea, or part of it, as laid down by Dourado, appears under the name of Os Papuos, and extends to the eastward as far as the scale of latitude is marked, but beyond that scale there is about half an inch of space, and there the coast in question commences, and runs a long way towards the east, with a little southing, and has many islands bordering upon it; whether this be either a continuation or a repetition more extended of Papua, it is much in the same latitude, and runs in the same direction. Again, on referring to an old map of Mercator, I found some names upon New Guinea, similar to those on the coast in question; there I found C. de las Virgines; I. de los Cresbos; R. de Bolcados; Buen Puerto answering to C. de las Virgines; I. de los Crespos: Bullcones Puerto Bueno, as found among the names on the coast in question; but what places the matter still more beyond doubt is, that the names in both run in the same consecutive order from west to east, upon several of the islands which border the main land.
Names of Islands as laid down in Names of Islands as laid down Dourado's map along the coast in Mercator's map on the said to be New Holland, in consecutive coast of New Guinea, in order from W. to E. consecutive order, W. to E. I. de los Martiles Y. de los Martyres I. dellos Crespos Y. de Crespos I. Duarati Y. Dearti I de Armo No such name I. Dombres brancos Y. de Malagente Llabasbuda La barbade Llacuimana No such name Bullcones (is laid down on the main land) Los Bulcones
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"Seeing that the coast in question, and that of New Guinea, are in the same latitude, that they greatly resemble each other in position, that several names upon them are similar, and that the similar names follow each other in both cases in the like consecutive order, and the same direction from west to east, I think we may safely come to the conclusion that the coast in question is identically that of New Guinea, and that the assumption of Viscount Sa de Bandeira and others following him, or whom he has followed, is an error."
From these observations of Dr. Martin, the editor forms the following conclusions; that the tract laid down on Vaz Dourado's map as discovered by Magalhaens, is in fact a memorandum or cartographical side-note of the real discovery by Magalhaens of Terra del Fuego, and that from its adopted false position on the vellum it was subsequently applied erroneously to New Guinea by Mercator. But even if this surmise be incorrect, the only alternative that remains is that the tract laid down is New Guinea, and clearly not Australia, as assumed by the claiments to whom we have referred. The editor submits that this claim is alike untenable from the accounts of Magalhaen's voyage and from the evidence of the map itself on which that claim is founded.
But we now pass to a more plausible indication of a discovery of Australia by the Portuguese in the early part of the sixteenth century, which ranges between the years 1512 and 1542. It occurs in similar form on six maps, four of them in England and two in France, on which, immediately below Java, and separated from that island only by a narrow
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strait, is drawn a large country stretching southward to the verge of several maps. The earliest in all probability, and the most detailed of these maps, is the one from which we give the annexed reduction of that portion immediately under consideration. It is a large chart of the world on a plane scale, on vellum, 8 ft. 2 in. by 3 ft. 10 in., highly ornamented, with figures, etc., and with the names in French. At the upper corner, on the left side, is a shield of the arms of France, with the collar of St. Michael; and on the right, another shield of France with Dauphiny, quarterly. It was probably executed in the time of Francis I. of France, for his son the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II. This chart formerly belonged to Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford, after whose death it was taken away by one of his servants. It was subsequently purchased by Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., and presented by him to the British Museum in 1790.
Java La Grande
The second, in all probability, of these, is contained in an atlas drawn at Dieppe in 1547, at present in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., of Middle Hill, Worcestershire. It contains the name of Nicholas Vallard of Dieppe. The editor has been unsuccessful in his efforts to gain a sight of this atlas, or even a fac-simile lithograph made by Sir Thomas Phillipps of the map supposed to contain the representation of Australia. Hence he has been compelled to rely upon the memory of Sir Frederick Madden, who had an opportunity of examining the atlas some years since, and who recollects that though
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it bore the name of Vallard and the date of 1547, it was not made by him, and that its date, though probably earlier than 1547, could be shown from internal evidence to be not earlier than 1539, A coat of arms appears in the margin of the volume, argent, on a saltire, gules, five besants, a mullet, sable in the fess point. This may lead a future investigator to the discovery of an earlier possessor of the map than Vallard, although it should be remarked that the borders on the margin appear to be of a later date than the maps themselves. It fell into the possession of Prince Talleyrand at the beginning of this century, and attracting the attention of the celebrated geographer M. Barbie du Bocage, drew from him a notice in the Magasin Encyclopedique, douzieme annee, tom. iv, 107, which, though lengthy, bears so directly upon the subject of the present work, that it is proposed in simple justice both to the writer and the reader presently to give it in full.
The third and fourth of these maps (if our other inferences as to date be correct) are contained in one volume in the British Museum; one of them is a detailed map, and the other an almost skeleton map of the world in hemispheres, with the latitudes and longitudes marked and the names of 'lytel Java' and the 'londe of Java' laid down on the great country in question. It is from this latter map that the annexed extract is given, on the same scale as the original, the octavo page being sufficiently large to admit the portion required to be shown. The only point of difference calling for special remark is, that
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in the original hemisphere the line representing the eastern coast does not reach to the bottom of the map, but terminates abruptly in the same degree of latitude as represented in the copy, though that degree is here, for convenience sake, made to coincide with the margin of the map. Indeed the special interest of this particular map is, that whereas all the others which represent this remarkable country have the coastline extended indefinitely to the southern margin; on this both the eastern and western coast lines stop abruptly at certain points, of which we are able to take cognizance by the degrees of latitude being shown on the same map. The volume containing these two important maps bears the date of 1542, and was made by one Jean Rotz who had in the first instance intended to dedicate it to the king of France, but afterwards presented it to king Henry VIII of England. In this dedication to the king, he says that the maps are made "au plus certain et vray quil ma este possible de faire, tante par mon experience propre, que par la certaine experience de mes amys et compagnons navigateurs;" and at the close he expresses his hope to compose shortly a work in English, which was to be printed to the great profit and advantage of all the navigators and seamen of this prosperous kingdom. It is to be regretted that we do not possess the work here promised, as much light might thereby have been thrown upon the mystery in which the question before us is involved. It has been suggested by Malte Brun, that the author was a Fleming, who came over to
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England with Anne of Cleves in 1540. The idea may have originated in the form of the name, but would hardly have been maintained had Malte Brun read Totz's dedication, in which he speaks of the king of France as having been "mon souverin et naturel signeur." There can be no doubt, then, that he was a French subject.
The Londe of Java
The fifth in date, if we suppose it to have been made early in the reign of Henry II, is a map given in fac-simile by M. Jomard, in his Monuments de la Geographie, ou Recueil d'Anciennes Cartes now in progress, and is described by him as "Mappemonde peinte sur parchemin par ordre de Henri II, Roi de France."
The sixth is a map in a Portolano at the Depot de la Guerre, Paris, drawn in 1555 by Guillaume le Testu, a pilot of Grasse, in Provence, or as others have thought a Norman. Andre Thevet, cosmographer to Henry II, boasted of having often sailed with him, and always styles him as "renomme pilote et singulier navigateur." The map was drawn for Admiral Coligny, to whom it is dedicated and whose name it bears. The editor has succeeded in procuring a tracing of that portion which affects the present question, and finds it to agree with the other maps of the kind in the delineation of the coast of "la Grande Java."
On the reduced tracing of the most fully detailed of these maps are inscribed some names of bays and coasts which were noticed in the first instance by Alexander Dalrymple, the late hydrographer to the Admiralty and the East India Company,
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to bear a resemblance to the names given by Captain Cook to parts of New Holland which he had himself discovered.
In his memoir concerning the Chagos and adjacent islands, 1786, p.4, speaking of this map he says:--"The east coast of New Holland as we name is expressed with some curious circumstances of correspondence to Captain Cook's MS. What he names:--
Bay of Inlets, is in the MS. called Bay Perdue. Bay of Isles, is in the MS. called R. de beaucoup d'Isles. Where the Endeavour struck, is in the MS. called Coste dangereuse."
So that we may say with Solomon, "'There is nothing new under the sun'".
To the discredit of so well informed and laborious a man as Dalrymple, to whom, perhaps, next to Hakluyt, this country is the most largely indebted for its commercial prosperity, this passage was but an invidious insinuation, intended to disparage the credit of Captain Cook, of whose appointment to the command of the Endeavour he was extremely jealous. Dalrymple had earnestly desired the command of an expedition to discover the great southern continent, the existence of which he had endeavoured to prove by various philosophical arguments, which later times have shown to be not without foundation; and his observation would seem to imply that Cook, who had been so successful in his discoveries on the coast of New Holland, might have been led thereto by an acquaintance with this pre-existant map. The unworthy insinuation met with a sensible refutation, as we are happy to record, from the pen of a Frenchman,
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M. Frederic Metz, in a paper printed at p, 261, vol. 47 of La Revue, ou Decade Philosophique, Litteraire et Politique, Nov., 1805. For the sake of clearness, the editor avoids here giving the whole of M. Metz's paper, in which an attempt is made to disprove that New Holland was discovered at this time by the Portuguese at all, but will merely quote those passages which meet Dalrymple's insinuation. M. Metz says:--
"It had been generally believed that we were indebted to the Dutch for our acquaintance with this vast country, and that the celebrated Cook had in his first voyage discovered its eastern coast, which he named New South Wales, until the discovery was made in the British Museum of a map upon parchment, presumed to be of the sixteenth century, on which was observed a large country laid down on the site occupied by New Holland. On the eastern coast of this country, places were found with the names 'Cotes des Herbaiges', 'Riviere de beaucoup d'Iles', 'Cote dangereuse', names which present a great resemblance to those of 'Botany Bay', 'Bay of Islands' and 'Dangerous Coast', given by Cook to parts of New South Wales. "The resemblance of these names struck many persons. Mr. Dalrymple, a man of the greatest merit, but a personal enemy of Cook, whom he never forgave for having received, in preference to him, the command of the Endeavour, in the voyage made to observe the passage of Venus, and especially for having demolished, beyond a hope of recovery, his theories of the existence of the southern lands, and of the north-west passage of America: Mr. Dalrymple, I say, took occasion therefrom to insinuate in one of his works, that the discovery of the east of New Holland was due to some navigator of the sixteenth century, and that Cook had only followed in his track..."
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"As the the resemblance of the names--this seems to me to prove exactly the contrary of the conclusions which it has been attempted to draw from them. If Cook had been acquainted with the maps in question, and had wished to appropriate to himself the discoveries of another, will anyone suppose him so short-sighted as to have preserved for his discoveries the very names which would have exposed his plagiarism, if ever the sources which he had consulted came to be known. The 'dangerous coast' was so named because there he found himself during four hours in imminent danger of shipwreck. We must suppose, then, that he exposed himself and his crew to an almost certain death in order to have a plausible excuse for applying a name similar to that which this coast had already received from the unknown and anonymous navigator who had previously discovered it. Moreover, names such as 'Bay of Islands', 'Dangerous coast', are well known in geography. We find a Bay of Islands in New Holland; and on the east coast of the island of Borneo there is a 'Cote des Herbages.'"
The sound sense of this reasoning, apart from all question of honour on the part of a man of the high character of Captain Cook, would seem conclusive, yet this similarity of names has, to the editor's own knowledge, been remarked upon by persons of high standing and intelligence in this country, though without any intention of disparaging Captain Cook, as an evidence that this country was identical with Australia. The similarity of the expression, 'Cote des Herbages', with the name of Botany Bay, given to a corresponding part of the coast by Captain Cook, has been particularly dwelt upon, whereas it ought to be known that this bay,
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originally called Stingray, but afterwards Botany Bay, was not so named on account of the fertility of the soil, but from the variety of plants new to the science of botany which were discovered on a soil otherwise rather unpromising. It is plain that early navigators would assign such a designation as 'Cote des Herbages' to a shore remarkable for its rich growth of grass or other vegetation, rather than from the appreciation of any curious botanical discovery. Had the similarity of the names 'Riviere de beaucoup d'Iles' and 'Cote dangereuse' with Cook's 'Bay of Islands' and the place 'where the Endeavour struck', names descriptive of unquestionable realities, been advanced by Dalrymple as evidence of the high probability that the country represented on the early map was New Holland, without volunteering an insinuation against the merit of his rival, we should have accepted the reasonable suggestion with deference and just acquiescence.
That New Holland was the country thus represented, became an argument supported by a variety of reasonings by more than one of our French neighbours. Mr. Coquebert Montbret, in a memoir printed in No. 81 of the Bulletin des Sciences, 1804, quotes Dalrymple's injurious observation and silently allows it to have its deceptive effect on the mind of the incautious reader.
The atlas now in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, which as we have stated, is probably next in date to that made for the Dauphin, fell into the possession of Prince Talleyrand at the beginning of
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this century, and attracting the attention of the celebrated geographer M. Barbie du Bocage, drew from him the following notice in the 'Magasin Encyclopedique, douzieme annee', tom. iv, 1807, which, though lengthy, bears so directly upon the subject of the present work, that it is here given in full.
Extract from the notice of a geographical manuscript belonging to his Serene Highness the Prince of Benevento (better known as Prince Talleyrand), read at a public session of the Institute, on the 3rd of July, 1807, by M. Barbie du Bocage.
"This manuscript is an hydrographic atlas, drawn at Dieppe in 1547 by a person of the name of Nicholas Vallard, of Dieppe, representing the eastern and western coasts of the continent of New Holland. This atlas is not the only one upon which these coasts are laid down. There are two in England, which came from France, and which we have been acquainted with by the English as well as by some Frenchmen. One of the two, which has been for a considerable time in the library of the British Museum, was drawn in 1542 by a person of the name of Jean Rotz or Roty, who had in the first instance drawn it, as he states in the dedication, for the King of France, but afterwards presented it to Henry VIII, king of England. The second is a large map on one single sheet of parchment, made for the Dauphin of France, whose arms it bears. It was formerly in the library of the Earl of Oxford, where Sir Joseph Banks was acquainted with it, and thence it passed to the British Museum, where it is at present. The English pretend that none of these charts were discovered till after the death of the celebrated Captain Cook, and that they had no knowledge of them when this navigator set sail. But their prior existence in well-known libraries in England may cause this assertion
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to be doubted. But even if they had made use of them to indicate to their countryman the countries which he had to visit, it would not the less follow that the skill the prudence and the resolution with which Captain Cook conducted his operations must always secure for him the glory of having made known in detail the countries which had hitherto been but faintly indicated."
The third manuscript atlas which represents the coasts of New Holland is that of which we have now to treat. It is a small folio volume, consisting of fifteen hydrographical charts on vellum, which has been recently acquired by his serene highness the Prince of Benevento. This atlas, even by the account of persons who have seen those which are in England, is the most beautiful of all the works of the kind, and for this reason deserves the most particular attention. There has since been discovered in France a fourth which is at present in the library of the Depot de la Guerre, which was drawn in 1555 by a person named Guillaume le Testu, a pilot, of Grasse, in Provence, for Admiral Coligny, to whom it is dedicated, and whose arms it bears.
The English geographers, MM. Dalrymple, Major Rennell, and Pinkerton; and among the French, MM. Bauache, De la Rochette, Coquebert de Montbret, and others, recognise on these atlases the eastern and western coasts of New Holland. These coasts are bounded by the same latitudes as those indicated on recent maps; and if they encroach more on longitude it is because, at the time the discovery was made, there existed but small means of fixing the boundaries in that respect. The names on all the atlases which we have just quoted are, for the most part, in Portuguese, some of them in French; that of 1542 alone, which is in England, has some of the names in bad English. We must, therefore, come to the conclusion that these atlases have been copied from Portuguese maps, and consequently that the discovery of the continent of New Holland belongs to the Portuguese.
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This is the opinion of MM. Dalrymple, Pinkerton, De la Rochette and several others; and I do not believe that any good reason can be alleged in refutation of an opinion so well founded.
All these atlases call this continent "Great Java", in contradistinction to the Island of Java, which is to the north of it; yet it is very singular that no mention whatever is made of this country in the voyages of the time. As, however, I think I have detected from history the period at which it must have been made, I shall now endeavour to explain why the Portuguese have kept this discovery a secret. I shall then fix the period at which I presume it to have been made, and will show how the knowledge of this country has been lost even by those who have discovered it.
The most ancient of the atlases which represents the coasts of New Holland, is that of Rotz or Roty, which is in England, and which bears the date 1542. At that period the Portuguese were masters of the Molucca Islands, which they had discovered in 1511, and where they had established themselves in 1512, and in one of which, Ternate, they had built a fort in 1522. They must have discovered New Holland after the Moluccas, and therefore this discovery must be limited to the period between the years 1512 and 1542.
Now, after 1516 or 1517, Spain began to dispute with Portugal the possession of the Moluccas, as being situated within the hemisphere which had been allotted to them by the bull of the pope Alexander VI, dated the 4th of July, 1493. This pope, in consequence of the disputes which had arisen between the courts of Lisbon and Toledo, had arranged that all discoveries which might be made on the globe to the east of a meridian one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands (which he seemed to think lay under the same medidian), for the space of 180°
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of longitude, should belong to the Portuguese; and that those to the westward of the same meridian for the same space should belong to the Spaniards. This division has since been called the line of demarcation of Pope Alexander VI. Don John II, however, who was then king of Portugal, being dissatisfied with this bull, which seemed to deprive him of considerable possessions in the west, made another arrangement in the following year with Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, by which this line was pushed further west, and definitely fixed at three hundred and seventy leagues to the westward of the Cape Verde Islands. This agreement was signed the 4th of June, 1494, and it was arranged that, in the space of ten months, persons should be sent out who were well informed in geography, to fix exactly the places through which this line should pass.
This agreement once entered upon, no more consideration was given to the sending out of competent persons to the places indicated, and the two governments continued their discoveries, each on its own behalf. Under the guidance of Cabral, the Portuguese, on the 9th of March, 1500, discovered Brazil, which lay in their own hemisphere. Under the guidance of Vincent Yanez Pinzon, the Spaniards had in the same or preceding year, sailed along the whole of this coast as far as the embouchure of the Oronoco. After this time the line, without further examination, was reckoned to pass by the mouth of the Maranon, or river of the Amazons, which had been already explored, and it is in this part that it is found traced on the Spanish maps of Herrera. The Portuguese, while they took possession of Brazil, continued their discoveries towards the east, and reached the Moluccas, where they established themselves, as we have said, in 1512. The proprietorship of the spices which the possession of these islands gave them, produced such considerable profits that it soon excited the jealousy of the Spaniards. The latter pretended that the Moluccas were in
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the hemisphere which had been allotted to them. This idea was particularly suggested to them by Magellan, who, being discontented with the treatment of king Emanuel, in having refused him an increase of allowance, took refuge about the year 1516 in Spain, and offered his services to the government of Charles V. Not only did he assert that the hemisphere belonging to the Spaniards comprised the Moluccas, but also the islands of Java and Sumatra, and a part of the Malay peninsula. In fact, from the difficulty which then existed in determing longitude, the discoveries of the Portuguese appeared to appropriate more than 180° in this direction, so great was the amount of space given to them in their maps; nevertheless, if we examine modern maps we shall see that, measuring from the mouth of the Maranon, the Moluccas still came within the hemisphere of the Portuguese.
Cardinal Ximenes, who at that time governed Spain in the absence of Charles V, at the outset received Magellan very well, and Charles V. himself afterwards entrusted him with the command of a squadron of five vessels, which, as we know, sailed from San Lucar on the 20th of September, 1519, on a western passage, in search of the spice islands, or Moluccas. Two of the vessels of this fleet arrived on the 8th of November, 1521, at the island of Tidore, after having passed through the straits since called the Straits of Magellan. That navigator was now no more; he had been killed in one of the islands of the archipelago of St. Lazaro, since called the Philippines, and nearly all his squadron having been destroyed, one vessel only, named "Victoria", returned to Europe, with eighteen persons, all very sick, under the guidance of Sebastian del Cano, who landed on the 6th of September, 1522, at the same port of San Lucar de Barrameda, from which the fleet had set sail three years before.
Whether it was from policy, or because the currents which
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exist in the Great Pacific Ocean had carried Magellan's fleet rapidly down to the Philippines and Moluccas, those who returned from this expedition, always maintained that these latter islands were in the hemisphere of the Spaniards, who consequently laid claim to traffic there. They were even on the point of sending out a new expedition thither, when king John III begged Charles V to have the question examined by competent persons, and promised to acquiesce in their decision. The two governments appointed twenty-four, or even a greater number, both Spaniards and Portuguese, well skilled in geography and navigation, who from the commencement of March 1524, met alternately in the two cities of Badajos and Elves, on the frontiers of the two states. Three months were allowed to them to decide definitely to whom these islands belonged.
These commissioners, among whom was Sebastian del Cano, who had brought back the Victoria, consumed at the outset a considerable time in consulting globes and charts, and in comparing the journals of pilots. They examined the distance between the Moluccas and the line of demarcation. They disputed much, and came to no conclusion. More than two months passed away in this manner; and they reached the latter part of May, which had been fixed as the term of the conferences.
The Spanish commissioners then settled the line of demarcation at three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands as it had been fixed in 1494; and as, on the basis of the charts which they had then before them, they made the opposite line, which was to be at the distance of 180°, pass-through the Malay peninsula, they included in their own hemisphere not only the Moluccas, but also the islands of Java and Borneo, part of Sumatra, the coast of China, and part of the Malay peninsula itself. The Portuguese did not agree to this limitation, which was too disadvantageous for themselves; on the contrary,
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they went away very discontented, storming, and threatening war, which gave occasion to the jocose observation of Peter Martyr of Anghiera, a talented man, at that time the historiographer of the court of Spain, that the Commissioners, after having well syllogized, concluded by being unable to decide the question except by cannon balls.
In spite of the unsuccessful issue of this negotiation, the two courts did not come to a quarrel; they were at the point of forming alliances. The question of the marriage of the Infanta Catherine, the emperor's sister, with king John, which was celebrated in 1525, was being then entertained. In the following year, 1526, the emperor espoused, with great pomp, Isabella, king John's sister. Charles V, however, believing himself in the right, continued to permit his subjects to carry on commerce with the Spice Islands; and he himself fitted out fleets to dispute the possession of them with the Portuguese. Some of these vessels landed at the Moluccas in 1527 and 1528; but, as these expeditions were generally unsuccessful, and as, moreover, he was in need of money for his coronation in Italy, he listened to the proposals of king John to purchase his rights to the islands. He parted with them by a secret treaty, which was signed at Saragossa the 22nd of April, 1529, for the sum, it is said, of 350,000 golden ducats, against the express wish of his subjects, who often, but in vain, besought him to retract it. By his refusal, it was thought that he had received much more. Thenceforth the Spaniards were not permitted to traffic with the Moluccas.
This termination of the quarrel on the part of Portugal was a justification of the claims of the Spaniards, and an acknowledgment in some sort that the Moluccas were in their hemisphere. After such an arrangement, the Portuguese could not show any discoveries made to the eastward, or even under the meridian of these islands. The greatest part of New Holland is more to the east than the Moluccas;
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hence it is to be believed that for this reason the Portuguese have kept silence respecting their discovery of it.
This discovery, as we have said, must be comprised between the years 1512 and 1542. There is, however, no mention made of it in the voyages of the time, which would sufficiently prove that the Portuguese had suppressed, or at least concealed, the account of it. But I propose to endeavour to supply this defect from the narrative of two of their historians.
Castenheda, a Portuguese author, who had been in India, tells us that in the beginning of July, 1525, the Portuguese of Ternate, one of the Moluccas, dispatched a vessel to the island of Celebes to traffic there; that this vessel on its return was driven by violent winds and currents into an open sea, between the Straits of Magellan and the Moluccas; that the Portuguese found themselves thrown more than three hundred leagues out of their route, and were several times nearly lost. One night their rudder was carried away, and they beat about till morning, when they discovered an island thirty leagues in circumference, on which they landed, with thanks to God for affording them this asylum. The islanders gave them an excellent reception; they were of a tawny colour, but well made and good looking, both men and women. The men had long black beards. The Portuguese remained four months on this island, not only for the purpose of refitting, but because the winds were contrary for the return to the Moluccas. At length they departed and reached Ternate on the 20th of January, 1526.
Such is the narrative of Castenheda. The Jesuit Maffei, who has given us a history of India, has supplied us with less details, but his account is not less valuable, inasmuch as he gives us the name of the captain who commanded the ship. He says: Some Portuguese of the Moluccas, having gone to the islands of the Celebes to seek for gold, but not having been able to land, were driven by a fearful tempest upon an
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island, which is distant therefrom three hundred leagues, when they went ashore. The inhabitants, who were simple people, received them very well, and soon became familiar with them. They comprehended their signs, and even understood a little of the language spoken at the Moluccas. All the inhabitants were well-looking, both male and female; they were cheerful, and the men wore beards and long hair. The existence of this island was previously unknown, but in consideration of the account given, of it by the captain, whose name was Gomez de Sequeira, and of the map which he drew of this island, his name was given to it.
From the details supplied to us by these two authors, it is evident that the island on which Gomez de Sequeira was thrown was to the eastward of the Moluccas, because, in returning, the Portuguese had to sail Westward. Now three hundred Portuguese leagues, starting from the Moluccas, or the island of Celebes, leads us to within a trifle of Endeavour Straits; we may therefore conclude that it was upon one of the rocks in this strait that Gomez de Sequeira lost his rudder, and that the island on which he landed was one of the westernmost of those which lie along its western extremity. The Portuguese did not advance far into this strait, for it is plain that they met with no obstacle in returning to the Moluccas. I think, therefore, that the island on which Gomez de Sequeira landed was one of those which were called Prince of Wales Islands by Captain Cook, and which are inhabited, because this navigator states that he saw smoke there. What confirms me in this opinion, is the agreement of our two authors in stating that the natives of New Holland [differed?] from those of New Guinea, whose hair and beards are crisped. This island, therefore, was nearer to New Holland than to New Guinea, which is, in fact, the case with the Prince of Wales Islands.
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The Portuguese having discovered in 1525 an island so near as this to New Holland, we must believe that the discovery of that continent followed very soon after that of this island. It was at that time that the controversies between the courts of Portugal and Spain were at their highest; the Portuguese, therefore, needed to be cautious respecting their new discoveries; they were obliged to conceal them carefully. It will not, therefore, be surprising that no mention was made in their works of the discovery of New Holland.
But, after having shown how much importance the Portuguese must have attached to the concealment of their discoveries, and having examined at what period the discovery of New Holland may have been made, it will be not less interesting to inquire how this discovery may have become known in France, and afterwards, in England, so early as 1542. There was nothing at that time to induce the court of Portugal to disclose their discoveries to the court of France; there was nothing to bind these two courts in intimate union; on the contrary, their intercourse had for some time been rather cool. As proof of this, the king of Portugal had in 1543 married his daughter Mary to Philip the Infant of Spain, without giving notice thereof to Francis I, who thereupon showed his vexation in his conduct towards Francis de Norough, the ambassador of Portugal, who to avoid a rupture between the two courts, answered with considerable reserve. We cannot, therefore, presume that the court of Portugal would ever have frankly communicated its discoveries to the court of France.
For my part, if it is permitted me to offer a conjecture, I think that this information may have resulted from the faithlessness of Don Miguel de Sylva, bishop of Viseo, and secretary of La Purite, a favourite of the king of Portugal, who, according to De la Clede, left the kingdom about 1542, carrying with him some papers of importance with which
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the king had entrusted him.[*1] This historian adds, that Don John was so indignant at the treachery of his favourite, that he outlawed him by a public decree, deprived him of all his benefices, and degraded him from his nobility. He decreed the same penalties against all his followers, and forbad all his subjects to hold any intercourse whatever with him, under pain of his displeasure. The count of Portalegre, the brother of the fugitive was even confined as a prisoner in the tower of Belem for having written to him, and kept under strict guard until the Infanta Maria, on the point of her departure to marry Philip II, the son of the Emperor Charles V, begged his liberation. The king granted the request, on the condition that the count should go to Arzilla to fight against the Moors, and earn by his services the forgiveness of his fault.
The severity which the king Don John exhibited on this occasion sufficiently shows the value which he attached to the papers which had been taken away. It is evident that they were of the greatest importance. They were secret papers; and may they not have been those which gave information of the discoveries of the Portuguese? Our atlases, therefore, may have been copied from the stolen documents; and it only remains for us to discover what has become of the originals.
Now, although the theories to which these maps
[*1) Since the reading of this memoir at the Institute, M. Correa da Serra, to whom I had previously read it, has had the goodness to inform me of some researches which he has made upon this subject. He discovered that Don Miguel de Sylva left the kingdom of Portugal in 1542, that he only arrived in Italy in 1543 to receive the cardinal's hat, and he thinks that he could only have reached that country by passing through France, where he had formerly studied, and that he doubtless there left the originals from which our charts were copied.]
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have given rise have been so complacently accepted by successive geographical writers, the subject has never yet been minutely investigated by any English writer, nor, indeed, have the foregoing arguments of the French been ever before brought together into a focus. The editor, therefore, first proposes to answer the hypothesis of M. Barbie du Bocage respecting the voyage he adduces of Gomez de Sequeira, and then, finally, to deal with the general question of the suggestive evidence of the maps.
With respect to Gomez de Sequeira's voyage, it is certainly surprising that M. Barbie du Bocage should have contented himself with referring to Castenheda and Maffei for a slight and loose description of this voyage, when it was equally competent to him to have resorted to the more ample description of Barros, the most distinguished of all the early Portuguese historians, who lived in the middle of the sixteenth century, and who has devoted a whole chapter to the minute description of the voyage in question. (See Dec. 3, liv. x, cap. 5) So full and ample is Barros' narrative that with a modern map before us, we can track Sequeira's course with a nicety which, so far as the main question is concerned, is not interrupted even by the accidents of the storm and the unshipping of his rudder. Let the reader for a moment consult any modern map of the Moluccas and the neighbouring islands, and he will find that the island of the Celebes, to which Sequeira directed his course from Ternate, presents the northernmost of the three horns of its oddly-shaped outline at a distance of about sixty leagues from Ternate.
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This is the distance which Barros states that he had to sail in order to reach that island. Had he sailed to the nearest of the two other points his voyage would have been, instead of sixty leagues, more than twice that distance; whereas the very nearness of the island was an inducement for the undertaking of the voyage, as the object was to relieve the immediate necessities of the settlement of Ternate. Upon landing at the point thus shown to be the northernmost one, the fact of his having carried with him stuffs for barter being discovered by the natives, converted the friendly feeling with which they had at first received him into hostility, as, having heard of some previous acts of greediness on the part of the Portuguese, they immediately concluded that the visit was not made in a spirit of friendship, but from selfish and ulterior motives. Hence Sequeira and his party were compelled to make their escape in haste, and proceeded to four or five other small islands in the neighbourhood, at which they met with a like reception. The map will show these plainly to the north of the Celebes. Resolving after these rebuffs to return to Ternate, they encountered a terrific storm, which drove them, to the best of their calculation, three hundred leagues into an open sea, with not a single island in sight, but constantly towards the east. At length one night, they struck upon an island and unshipped their rudder. They met with a most friendly reception from the natives, who are described as of a light, rather than a dark, colour, and clothed. The island is stated to have been large and the natives
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pointed to a mountain to the westward in which they said there was gold. The Portuguese remained in the island four months, until the monsoon enabled them to return to Ternate.
Now, had Sequeira been driven by the storm towards Endeavour Strait, as presumed by M. Barbie du Bocage, a glance at the map will show us that his course would have been south-east instead of east, and that not through an open sea in which no island could be seen, but one bestudded with islands. In fact, so definite is the whole account as given in detail by Barros, that, as we have shown his course under the driving tempest may be palpably traced in accordance therewith on modern maps as due east to the north of the Moluccas, and through an open sea, and is clearly at variance with the inference of M. Barbie du Bocage, who seems not to have consulted Barros at all upon the subject. To what island, the reader will ask, was Sequeira driven? Let the modern map be consulted, and the course described will bring us to the island Tobi, otherwise known as Lord North's Island. A course so clearly defined is in itself a very strong point in the question, even though we may have to show some discrepancies between the description of the island on which Sequeira was thrown and that which we have in recent times received of Lord North's Island. Let the reader, however, in connexion with Barros' description of the course, take the following remarkable statement, as quoted in the 6th volume of the Ethnography and Philology of the United States Exploring Expedition, by H. Hale, in
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which, under the article "Tobi, or Lord North's Island," at p. 78, the following account is given, and he will perhaps not dissent from the editor in thinking it possible that this was the island on which Sequeira was driven.
"Tobi, or Lord North's Island, is situated in about lat. 3° 2' N., and long. 131° 4' E. It is a small low islet, about three miles in circumference, with a population of between three and four hundred souls. Our information concerning it is derived from an American, by name Horace Holden, who, with eleven companions, after suffering shipwreck, reached the island in a boat, and was taken captive by the natives. He was detained by them two years from December 6th, 1832, to November 27th, 1334, when he made his escape and returned to America, where he published in a small volume (which is in the British Museum), an interesting narrative of his adventures and sufferings, with a description of the island and its inhabitants.
"The complexion of the natives, says Holden in his narrative, is a light copper colour, much lighter than that of the Malays or Pelew Islanders, which last, however, they resemble in the breadth of their faces, high cheek bones, and broad flattened noses. Here we observe what has been before remarked of the Polynesian tribes, that the lightest complexion is found among those who are nearest the equator.
"According to the native traditions a personage, by name "Pita-Ka't" (or Peeter Kart)[*1], of copper colour like themselves,
[*1) This name, from the Dutch form which it bears, might suggest the idea that the visitor was a Dutchman; but it must be remembered that the Dutch were not in those seas till the end of the sixteenth century, and that the Synod of Dort was held in the years 1618 and 1619, which renders the suggestion at the close of the paragraph as to "the images to represent their divinityl unreasonable as coming from a native of that country. It is mor probable that, from the lapse of time, a mistake was made in the repetition of the name by a savage, and that a Portuguese, and no a Dutchman, suggested the use of images to represent a divinity.]
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Came, many years ago, from the Island of Ternate, one of the Moluccas, and gave them their religion and such simple arts as they possessed. It is probably to him that we are to attribute some peculiarities in their mode of worship, such as their temple with rude images to represent their divinity. The natives wear the Polynesian girdle of bark cloth.
"The houses of the natives are built with small trees and rods and thatched with leaves. They have two stories, a ground floor and a loft, which is entered by a hole or scuttle through the horizontal partition or upper floor.
"For ornament they sometimes wear in their ears, which are always bored, a folded lead, and around their necks a necklace made with the shell of the cocoa-nut and a small white sea shell."
With reference to the cruelties detailed in Holden's narrative Mr. Hale goes on to say:
"It should be mentioned that the release of the four Americans who survived (two of whom got free a short time after their capture), was voluntary on the part of the natives, a fact which shows that the feelings of humanity were not altogether extinct in their hearts. Indeed, though the sufferings of the captives were very great, it did not appear that they were worse, relatively to the condition in which the natives themselves lived, than they would have been on any other island of the Pacific. Men who were actually dying of starvation, like the people of Tobi, could not be expected to exercise that kindness towards others which nature refused to them."
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We have quoted this somewhat long passage respecting Lord North's Island, as having an incidental interest in connexion with M. Barbie du Bocage's argument; but whatever may really have been the island on which Sequeira was driven, it seems clear that it could not have been in the direction of Endeavour Strait as inferred by that geographer.
Having thus shown the surmises which have been suggested by geographers of good repute with respect to the main question of the discovery of Australia in the early part of the sixteenth century, and explained, as he hopes satisfactorily, the errors into which they have fallen in their attempts at explanation, the editor will now lay before the reader his own reasons for concluding that Australia is the country which these maps describe.
The first question that will naturally arise is--how far does the country thus represented, correspond in latitude, longitude, and outline with the recognised surveys of Australia as delineated in modern maps? And if the discrepancies exposed by the comparison do not forbid the supposition that Australia is the country represented on the early maps, the inquiry will then suggest itself--how, with any satisfactory show of reason, may these discrepancies be accounted for? To both these questions, the editor believes that he can give acceptable answers.
And first as respects latitude. In all of these maps, the latitude of the north of Java, which is the first certain starting point, is correct. The south coast of Java, or "the lytil Java", though separated from
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"Java la Grande," or the "Londe of Java," by a narrow channel, as shown in the maps here given, has no names which indicate any pretension to a survey. There is enough proximity between the two to suggest alike the possibility of a connection or of a separation of the two countries. In the absence of so many words, the maps show as plainly as possible that it was as yet an unsettled question. With this fact, therefore, before us, implying, as it does, both conscientiousness in the statements on the maps, and the confession of an imperfect survey of the whole of the coasts supposed to be laid down, we have no difficulty in giving credence to the pretension that the great southern land there represented was, with all its errors, a reality and not a fiction. In all fairness, therefore, we pass the question of junction between the little and the great Java, as a point virtually declared to be unsettled, and supposing the latter to be Australia, test our supposition by inquiring as to the correctness of the latitude in which the coastline terminates on the western side. Here again we find exact correctness. In the one (Rotz's map), the line ceases altogether at 35°, the real south-western point of Australia, and in the other at the same point all description ceases, and a meaningless line is drawn to the margin of the map, implying, that no further exploration had been made. On the eastern side, we have in every respect greater inaccuracy; but for the present we deal only with the question of latitude. For the sake of convenience, our reduction of Rotz's map is made to terminate at
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the point where the eastern coast line of "the Londe of Java terminates," namely in the sixtieth degree, a parallel far exceeding in. its southing even the southernmost point of Tasmania, which is in 43° 35'; but if we look to the Dauphin map, we find that about 10° of the southernmost portion of the line is indefinite, and it must not be forgotten that for the Portuguese, this was the remotest point for investigation, and consequently, the least likely to be definite. There is, however, strong reasons for supposing that the eastern side of Tasmania was included within this coast line.
With respect to longitude, it may be advanced that with all the discrepancies observable in the maps here presented, there is no other country but Australia lying between the same parallels, and of the same extent, between the east coast of Africa and the west coast of America, and that Australia does in reality lie between the same meridians as the great mass of the country here laid down. In Rotz's map we have the longitude reckoned from the Cape Verde islands, the degrees running eastward from 1 to 360. The extreme western point of the "Londe of Java" is in about 126° (102 E. from Greenwich), whereas the westernmost point of Australia is in about 113° E. from Greenwich. The extreme eastern points of "the Londe of Java" is in about 207° (or 183° E. from Greenwich). The extreme western point however is on a peak of huge extent, which is a manifest blunder or exaggeration. The longitude of the easternmost side, excluding this
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peak, is in about 187° (or 163° East from Greenwich), whereas the easternmost point of Australia is in something less than 154 E. from Greenwich. The difficulty of ascertaining the longitude in those days is well known, and the discoveries which these maps represent were, in all probability, made on a variety of occasions, and had a continuous line given to them on maps, not so much as an exact, but as an approximate guide to subsequent explorers. It were hard indeed, therefore, if sufficient concession were not made to the pioneers of maritime exploration, for the reconciliation of these comparatively and light discrepancies, when inaccuracies as striking are observable in surveys made as late as in the eighteenth century.
Thus in taking a general survey of the outline of this immense country, we have this one striking fact presented to us, that the western side is comprised between exactly the same parallels as the correspooding side of Australia, allowance being made for the conjunction of Java, while the eastern side presents the same characteristic as the eastern side of Australia in being by far the longest.
We now proceed to a more minute examination of the contour of the coasts. It is to be observed that on the north of the Great Java, shown in all these manuscript maps which have met the editor's eye, occurs the word "Sumbava," a fact which, he thinks has never been noticed by any writer upon these interesting documents. Here is another instance of the discovery of the north of
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an island of which the south has remained unexplored. The peak of the great Java, on which this name "Sumbava" is laid down, falls into the right position of the now well-known island of Sumbava, with the smaller islands of Bali and Lombok, lying between it and Java, and with Flores and Timor duly described towards the eastward. The reason of the south coast of these islands remaining for so long unexplored may be found in the description of Java by Barros, the Portuguese historian, who wrote in the middle of the sixteenth century. He says:
"The natives of Sunda, in dissecting Java, speak of it as separated by the river Chiamo from the island of Sunda on the west and on the east by a strait from the island of Bali; as having Madura on the north, and on the south an undiscovered sea; and they think that whoever shall proceed beyond these straits, will be hurried away by strong currents, so as never to be able to return, and for this reason they never attempt to navigate it, in the same manner as the Moor on the eastern coast of Africa do not venture to pass the Cape of Currents. The earliest mention that the editor has noticed of a passage to the south of Java, is in the account of the "Four Hollanders' Ships' Voyage, being the First Voyage of the Dutch to the East Indies." See Oxford Collection of Voyages vol ii, p. 417. Under date of the 14th March, 1597, it is said: "The wind blew still south-east, sometimes more southward and sometimes eastward, being under 14°, and a good sharp gale, holding our course west-south-west. There we found
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that Java is not so broad nor stretcheth itself so much southward as it is set down in the card; for, if it were, we should have passed clean through the middle of the land." Supposing, then, that the Portuguese navigators have lighted upon the west coast of Australia, and have regarded it as a possible extension to the southward of the already known island of Java; let us proceed to test the correctness of this supposition by the contour of the coast of the western side. A single glance of the eye will suffice to detect the general resemblance. It is probable that the two great indentures are Exmouth Gulf and Shark Bay, and we may fairly conclude we detect Houtman's Abrolhos in about their proper parallel of from 28° to 29° south latitude. To attempt a minute investigation of the whole coast upon data so indefinite would be of course unreasonable, but on this western side at least the similarity is sufficient, we think, on every ground to establish its identity with the west coast of Australia. On the eastern side the discrepancies are much greater. Having already spoken of the latitude and longitude, we now speak merely of the outline of the coast. In the ancient map we see no huge promontory, terminating in Cape York, but let the reader recall the suggestion that the visits to these coasts were made on various occasions, and naturally less frequently to the eastern than to the western side, and let the result of these considerations be that the promontory may have been altogether unvisited or ignored, and we shall have forthwith an explanation of the form of
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the north-east coast line on the early maps. Let a line be drawn from the southernmost point of the Gulf of Carpentaria to Halifax Bay, and the form of outline referred to is detected immediately. Nor is this conjecture without corroboration from the physical features of the country. On the ancient map we find several rivers laid down along the north-east coast. If we examine the corresponding coast in the Gulf of Carpentaria, those rivers are seen to exist; whereas from Cape York all along the coast of Australia to the twenty-second or twenty-third degree, there is not even an indication of a river emptying itself into the sea. The great number of islands and reefs laid down along the north-east coast of the early maps coincides with the Great Barrier Reefs, and with the Cumberland and Northumberland islands, and a host of others which skirt this part of the shores of Australia. "Coste dangereuse", "Bay perdue", and "R. de beaucoup d'Isles", are names which we readily concede to be appropriate to portions of such a coast. The name "Coste des Herbaiges", which we have already spoken of as having been erroneously supposed by many geographers to apply to Botany Bay, was probably given to that part of the coast where the first symptoms of fertility were observed in passing southward, the more northern portions of the shore being for the most part dry and barren. That it is an error to connect the name with Botany Bay has already been shown, at pxxxiv, and the editor must not fail to state that the unanswerable reason there adduced was
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derived from a judicious observation made to him by the late distinguished Dr. Brown, who not only, as Humboldt has described him was, "Botanices facile princeps", but himself acquainted with the locality of which he spoke.
The remainder of the coast southward is too irregularly laid down both as to latitude and longitude, and consequently as to correctness of conformation, to admit of any useful conjecture. It must be supposed from the conscienciousness observable in the delineation of other parts of the country, that this portion was laid down more carelessly, or with less opportunity of taking observations. It is by no means improbable, from the length of this coast line, that "Baye Neufve" is Bass's Straits; that "Gouffre" is Oyster Bay in Tasmania; and that the survey really ceased at the south of that island. That the continuity of the coast forms no ground of objection to this conjecture may be shown by the fact that on "a general chart exhibiting the discoveries made by Captain Cook, by Lieut. H. Roberts", the coast is continuous to the south of Van Dieman's Land, Bass's Straits being then of course undiscovered.
It may also be fairly presumed that the islands in the extreme east of our extract from the Dauphin map, represent New Zealand.
If the above reasons have sufficient weight in them to justify the supposition that the extensive country thus laid down in those early maps is really Australia, it becomes a question of the highest interest to ascertain, as nearly as may be, by whom, and at what date, the discovery of this country was made.
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The maps upon which the supposition of the discovery is alone founded are all in French, and that they are all repetitions, with slight variations, from one source, is shown by the fact that the inaccuracies are alike in all of them. But although the maps are in French, there are, indications of Portuguese in some of the names, such as "Terre ennegade", a Gallicized form of "Tierra anegada", i.e., "land under water", or "sunken shoal", "Gracal", and "cap de Fromose". The question then arises, were the French or the Portuguese the discoverers? In reply, we present the following statement.
In the year 1529, a voyage was made to Sumatra, by Jean Parmentier of Dieppe and in this voyage he died. Parmentier was a poet, and a classical scholar, as well as a navigator and a good hydrographer. He was accompanied in this voyage by his intimate friend, the poet Pierre Crignon, who, on his return to France, published, in 1531, the poems of Parmentier, with a prologue containing his eulogium, in which he says of him, that he was "le premier Francois qui a entrepris a estre pilotte pour mener navires a la Terre Amerique qu'on dit Bresil, et semblablement le premier Francois qui a descouvert les Indes jusqu'a l'Isle de Taprobane, et, si mort ne l'eust pas prevenu, je crois qu'il eust ete jusques aux Moluques." This is a high authority upon this point, coming as it does from a man of education, and a shipmate and intimate of Parmentier himself. The French, then, were not in the South Seas beyond Sumatra, before 1529. The date of the earliest of our quoted
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maps is not earlier than 1535, as it contains the discovery of the St. Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in that year; but even let us suppose it no earlier than that of Rotz, which bears the date of 1542, and ask, what voyages of the French in the South Seas do we find between the years 1529 and 1542? Neither the Abbe Raynal, nor any modern French writer, nor even antiquaries, who have entered most closely into the history of early French explorations, as for example, M. Leon Guerin, the author of the Histoire Maritime de France, Paris, 1843, 8 vo.; and of Les Navigateurs Francais, 8 vo., Paris, 1847, offer the slightest pretension that the French made voyages to those parts, in the early part or middle of the sixteenth century. Now we do know from Barros and Galvano that, at the close of 1511, Albuquerque sent from Malacca, Antonio de Breu, and Francisco Serrano, with three ships to Banda and Malacca. They passed along the east side of Sumatra to Java, and thence by Madura, Bali, Sumbava, Solor, etc., to Papua or New Guinea. From thence they went to the Moluccas and to Amboyna. See Barros, d. 3, 1. 5, c. 6, p. 131, and Galvano, translated by Hakluyt, p. 378. Here we have the very islands, forming the northern portion of the Grande Jave, at this early date; but that which is totally wanting between this and 1529, is the account of the various explorations of the eastern and western coasts of the vast country described under that name. It is certain, moreover, that France was at that time too poor, and too much embroiled in
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political anxieties, to busy itself with extensive nautical explorations. Had she so done, the whole of North America and Brazil might now have belonged to her. At the same time, however, we know that the Portuguese had establishments before 1529, in the East Indian Islands, and the existence of Portuguese names on the countries of which we speak, as thus delineated on these French maps, is in itself an acknowledgment of their discovery by the Portuguese, as assuredly the jealousy implied in the sentence, quoted at p. vi of this introduction, from Pierre Crignon's Prologue, would not only have made the French most ready to lay claim to all they could in the shape of discovery, but would have prevented any gratuitous insertion of Portuguese names on such remote countries, had they themselves discovered them.
But, further, as an important part of the argument, the reader must not overlook that jealousy of the Portuguese, to which allusion has already been made (p. v), in forbidding the communication of all hydrographical information respecting their discoveries in these seas. As regards the surmises of M. Barbie du Bocage respecting the probable causes of the suppression or concealment of such documents, his carefulness and ingenuity entitle them to the best consideration; and if these documents really exist in France, or Rome, or elsewhere, it is much to be hoped that they may ere long be brought to light. His Excellency the Count de Lavradio, ambassador from Portugal to the Court of St. James, has obligingly set
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on foot inquiries at Rome for the purpose of elucidating this subject, which have not, however, produced any successful result.
But although we have no evidence to show that the French made any original discoveries in the South Seas in the first half of the sixteenth century, we have the evidence that they were good hydrographers. Crignon describes Parmentier as "bon cosmographe et geographe", and says, "par luy ont este composez plusieurs mapemondes en globe et en plat, et maintes cartes marines sus les quelles plusieurs ont havigue seurement". It is dangerous to draw conclusions from negatives; but it is both legitimate and desireable that we should give due weight to evidence of high probability when such fall within our notice. If all the French maps we have quoted are, as has been shown, derived from one source, since they all contain the same errors; and if Parmentier, who was a good hydrographer, was the only French navigator we find mentioned as having gone so far as Sumatra before the period of the earliest of these maps; and further, if these maps exhibit Portuguese names laid down in these maps on a country beyond Parmentier's furthest point of exploration, we think the inference not unreasonable that Parmentier may have laid down, from Portuguese maps, the information which has been copied into those we have quoted, and that the descriptions round the coast, which are all (as may be plainly seen), with the exception of those which bear the stamp of Portuguese, convertible into French, have
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been naturally written by French mapmakers, in that language. We can but throw out this suggestion for quantum valeat. All positive evidence, in spite of labourious research, is wanting. The earliest Portuguese portolani which have met the editor's eye are those of Joham Freire, of 1546 and of Diego Homem, of 1558. Both these are silent on the subject. That of Lazaro Luis and of Vas Dourado, later in the century, both examined by Dr. Martin in Lisbon, are equally so. But this has been already accounted for. It is true that, in a mappemonde of the data of 1526, by one Franciscus monachus ordinis Franciscanorum, copied into the atlas to the Geographic du Moyen Age of Joachim Lelewel the great Terra Australis, extending along the south of the globe from Tierra del Fuego, is laid down with the words "Is nobis detecta existet", and "haec pars ore nondum cognita"; but this is plainly nothing more than a fanciful extension of Magellan's discovery of the north coast of Tierra del Fuego, combined with the old supposition of the existence of a great southern continent.
A similar remark occurs in the manuscript portolano of Ioan Martinez, of Messina, of the date of 1567, in the British Museum; and in the fifth map of the portolano of the same hydrographer, of the date of 1578, is laid down "Meridional discoperta novamente", with no names on it, and only showing the north part. The extent of what is seen is twice as long as Java Major, which seems here to be
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Sumatra. It is observable that Petan and Maletur, here occurring on or near the Terra Australis of other maps of about this date, occur here, but close under Java Minor, which is a long way to the west of the "Meridional discoperta novamente".
In 1526 the Portuguese commander, Don Jorge de Meneses, in his passage from Malacca to the Moluccas, was carried by currents and, through his want of information respecting the route, to the north coast of Papua, which we now know as New Guinea; and in the following year we find Don Alvaro de Saavedra, a Spaniard, and kinsman of the great Cortes, despatched from New Spain to the Moluccas, and also lighting on New Guinea, where he passed a month; but nowhere in the allusions to these voyages do we find reference to the great southern land, which is land drawn with so much detail under the name of "La Grande Jave".
Our surmises, therefore, lead us to regard it as highly probable that Australia was discovered by the Portuguese between the years 1511 and 1529, and, almost a demonstrable certainty, that it was discovered before the year 1542.
A notion may be formed of the knowledge possessed by the Spaniards in the middle of the sixteenth century, on the part of the world on which we treat, from the following extract from a work entitled, "El libro de las costumbres de todas las gentes del mundo y de las Indias". Translated and compiled by the Bachelor Francisco Themara Antwerp, 1556:--"Thirty leagues from Java the Less is Gatigara,
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19° the other side of the equinoctial towards the south. Of the lands beyond this point nothing is known, for navigation has not been extended further, and it is impossible to proceed by land on account of the numerous lakes and lofty mountains in those parts. It is even said that there is the site of the Terrestrial Paradise". Although this was not originally written in Spanish, but was translated from Johannes Bohemus it would scarcely have been given forth to the Spaniards had better information on the subject existed among that people.
It has already been stated in this Introduction, that in, the early engraved maps of the sixteenth century, there occur apparent indications of Australia, with names and sentences, descriptive of the country so represented, derived from the narrative of Marco Polo, with an intimation that some of these representations may not have emanated solely from that narrative. The earliest of these occurs on a mappemonde in the third volume of the polyglot bible of Arias Montanus, and the indication of Australia there given is the more striking that it stands unconnected with any other land whatever, and bears no kind of description. It is simply a line indicating the north part of an unexplored land, exactly in the position of the north of Australia, distinctly implying an imperfect discovery, but not copied from, or bearing any resemblance to any indication of the kind in any previous map with which the editor is acquainted.
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In Thevet's Cosmographie Universelle, Paris, 1575, is a map with Taprobane, La Grand Jave, Petite Jave, Partie de la Terre Australe, and in tom. i, liv. 12, the following passage:
"L'art et pratique du navigage est le plus penible et dangerex de toutes les sciences, que oncques les hommes ayent inventees, veu que l'homme s'expose a la mercy des abysmes de ce grand ocean, qui environne et abbreuve toute la terre. Davatage, avec ceste Esquille lon peult visiter presque toute ce que le monde continent en sa rotondite, soit vers la mer glaciale, ou les deux poles, et terre Australe, qui n'est, encor comme ie croy descouverte mais selon mon opinion d'aussi grande estendue que l'Asie ou l'Afrique, et laquelle un iour sera; recherchee par le moyen de ce petit instrument navigatoire, quelque long voyage qui y peust estre."
In Dalrymple's Hist. Coll. of Voyages in the South Pacific Ocean, Juan Fernandez is said to have discovered the southern continent. Burney, who speaks of his doscovery of the southern continent (vol. i, p. 300), refers to the memorial of Juan Luis Arias for the description. See the first article in the present collection.
It is needless here to repeat the names and sentences already described as given on early engraved maps from Marco Polo, but it will be well to notice such peculiarities as distinguish these maps from those in manuscript, which we have already been speaking of as probably representing Australia under the name of La Grande Jave. Such notice is the more interesting as the date of these engraved
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maps is intermediate between that of the manuscript documents and the period of the authenticated discovery of Australia. In the 1587 edition of Ortelius is a map entitled "Typus Orbis Terrarum", in which New Guinea is made an island, with the words "Nova Guinea quae an sit insula aut pars continentis Australis incertum". On the Terra Australis, here brought up far more to the north than elsewhere, and separated from New Guinea only by a strait, are the words, "Hanc continentem Australem non nulli Magellanicam regionem ab ejus inventore nuncupant." While the sentence shows how indefinite was the idea of the extent of Australia towards the south, we think that the entire delineation, which brings the great Terra Australis so far northward in this longitude into connexion with New Guinea, goes far to show that Australia had really been discovered.
In various editions of Mercator occur copies of a map entitled "Orbis Terrae Compendiosa descriptio quam ex magna universali Gerardi Mercatoris Rumoldus Mercator fieri curabat anno 1587", in which similar indications are given to those in the map of Ortelius just described.
In the map of Peter Plancius, given in the English edition of the voyages of Linschoten, 1598, similar indications of Australia occur, but leaving the question of the insular character of New Guinea doubtful.
In the Speculum Orbis of C. de Judaeis, Antwerp, 1592, is a map entitled "Brasilia et Peruvia", on which occurs "Chaesdia seu Australis Terra quam
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nautarum vulgus Tierra di Fuego vacant, alii Psittacorum Terram". In the map of Asia, in the same Volume, a tract is laid down which, by comparison with Ortelius' map of the Pacific Ocean, is plainly New Guinea; and on both these maps, on the west coast of said tract, are the words "Tierra baixa", which seems to tally with "Baie Basse", at about the corresponding point on the manuscript maps, and is confirmatory of the conclusion which the editor had formed. In the same volume is a map of the Antartic hemisphere, in which the Terra Australis incognita is brought high up to the north in the longitude of Australia. On that part of it opposite the Cape of Good Hope is the following legend: "Lusitani bonae spei legentes capitis promontorium hanc terram austrum versus extare viderunt, sed nondum imploravere", a significant sentence if allowance be made for the difficulty at that time of reckoning the longitude.
In the map to illustrate the voyages of Drake and Cavendish by Jodocus Hondius, of which a fac-simile was given in The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake, printed for our Socity, New Guinea is made a complete island, without a word to throw a doubt on the correctness of the representation; while the Terra Australis which is separated from New Guinea, only by a strait, has an outline remarkably similar to that of the Gulf of Carpentaria. These indications give to this map an especial interest, and the more so that it is shown to be earlier than the passage of Torres through Torres' Straits in 1606, by its bearing
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the arms of Queen Elizabeth, before the unicorn of Scotland had displaced the dragon of England.
In the article "Terra Australis", in Cornelius Wytfliet's Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum, Louvain, 1598, we find the following passage:--
"The 'Australis Terra' is the most southern of all lands, and is separated from New Guinea by a narrow strait. Its shores are hitherto but little known, since after one voyage and another, that route has been deserted, and seldom is the country visited unless when sailors are driven there by storms. The 'Australis Terra' begins at two or three degrees from the equator, and is maintained by some to be o
