The First Discovery of Australia and New Guinea

th rose with her

are to meet th

in her gol

mpires see he

hope has compa

ILBERT

of Prin

nations in the arena of maritime discover

then mistre

clutching with her outstretched hands at the s

unched her navy; Holla

ndson of Edward III. of England--whose enterprise

isphere and Sp

st of Africa; little by little one captain had overstepped the distance traversed by

guese

ousands of miles, trod the vast expanse of waters to the east, and soon began to plant

Aru Islands and Gilolo; she had reached the famous and much coveted Moluccas, or Spice Islands, and set to work buildi

slands situated on the west and north-west coast of New Guinea became known to the Portuguese at an early date, and were named collectively OS PAPUAS. The name was subsequently given

navigations and explorations westward with the same object in view, and it soon dawned

d the regions where the Portuguese had established themselves, and di

rld upon the Spanish, and the other half upon the Portuguese, charging eac

gh, but viewed in the light of subsequent

he Portuguese and Spanish boundaries in the longitudes of the Spice Islands,* an overlapping due, no doubt, principally to the desire of each contending party to include the Spice Islands with

s would have fallen to the lot of Spain. Strange to say, this line of demarcation still separates Western Australia from South Australia so that those two States derive their boundary demarcation from Pope Alexander's line. A few years after the discovery of the New World the Spanish Government found it necessary, in order to regulate her

je

no land had been si

very to be found on the Spanish official map. It is evident, therefore, that this part of the world could not have been charted up to date. This is not extraordinary, for it was not uncommon in those days, nor was it deemed strange that many years should elapse before the results of an expedition c

the Rib

Vict

western passage to the Spice Islands, and wi

llan's squadron, one alone, the Victori

ich received Magellan's name, seventy odd

lost on the coa

bandoned and burnt off the island of Bohol, in the S

hands made prisoners by the Portuguese. Many of them died, and, ye

idad in

a total crew of two hundred and eighty. The remaining one hundred and sixty or seventy had perished. It is true that s

more disastrous. A short description o

sed and clandestine voyages were also performed, in the course of which Australia may have been discov

sh (From