The First Discovery of Australia and New Guinea

, however, somewhat startling, for they reveal, in a most unexpected and sudden manner, nearly the whol

tant documents hitherto come to light bearing

nispheres, which is represented by several specimens, all of which are copie

erior to 1536, they may be considered collectively no

s the date 1566;

taken from a large chart of the world, on a plane scale, painted on vellum, 8ft. 2i

right, another shield of France and Dauphiny, quarterly. It was probably executed in the time of Francis I. of Fran

movement was set on foot for the colonisation of the Great Southern Continent, or Jave-la-Grande. The promotors failed in their endeavours, an

at Albu

of the Admiralty, after whose death it was taken away by one of his servants. It. was subsequ

ublic Libraries, at considerable expense. This was a wise step on the part of our governments, for the strongest

the first of which were more or less altered in outline and corru

ave been Portuguese or Spanish, one point of the question will be settled, and the Portuguese

ust have taken place at some period between the arrival of the Portuguese and Spanish in these seas and t

(1511) they were the masters in those seas, and became the possessors

ve that the Javanese, Malays, Chinese, or Arabs had any knowledge of Brazil in South America, although the Malays and Arabs had rounded the Cape of Good Hope, coming from the east side, of course. I am inclined to think that the term Brazil mentioned by Albuquerque refers to Australia, which had b

ted in the first discovery can be ascertained, the question of na

onclusion drawn was that as they are all written in French, the French we

uese discovery, he was led to adopt a Proven?al theory to explain certain words which on these old Gallicized charts, were neither Portuguese nor French. The whole subject was in this state of incertitude and confusion, when, a few years ago, having

a very great significance, since it not only proves the Portuguese origin of the chart, but also the genuineness of the discovery mad

phrase "Anda ne barcha," may refer to the difficulty of navigating

s a proof of Portuguese origin, but I rather took it as a clue, for the meaning of those words had evidently not been understood by the copyi

that I came to the conclusion that the western coasts of Australia had been chartered by the Portuguese, whereas th

, to be more precise, the strange distortion which all these specimens have undergone. This distortion is so great that one might fail to recognise Australia within the coast line set down, were it not for the gene

d Jave-la-Gr

d longitudes charted, Australia does actually hold its place in the vast

e first circumnavigators were called upon to determine whether the Moluccas fell within the Sp

e far more suggestive of deliberate d

rk about Spanish distortions. I come now to th

rted lay more to the east, and if they dragged them out of position and placed them under Java as shown in these maps, it was in order to secur

sh voyages on the north coast of New Guinea [see pages 25, 26, 28], and who aboard Portuguese ships navigated al

n at places and stretched out at others to suit their purposes, etc., etc., and when they found out that I understood their little pranks they m

hown in these charts, nor that there was not an open sea to the south of Java since the first circumnavigators, returning to

d to be one and the same continent by certain otherwise well-informed navigators, as will be seen by Linschoten's "Discours of Voyages i

here there is a strait or narrow passage, called the strait of Sunda, of a place so called, lying not far from thence within the Isle of Java. The island beginneth under 7 degrees on t

ich, being so, should reach from that place to the Cape de Bova Sperace [Cape of Good

implies cont

with ANTARCTICA, which he terms TERRA INCOGNITA; and his hesitation may be readily understood when we consider that some maps of the p

mb

LUMINA

eek in these quaint devices a strict pourtrayal of the scenes appertaining to the countries they might be supposed to illustrate; to do so would be to forget their chief purpose, the decorative. But, allow

aps! But that clump of bamboos* on the top of a hill is not a volc

tralia, planted, no doubt, by Malay fishermen in search of

rst time by the Spaniards in the straits to which Magellan gave his name, and descr

etta

e body of a camel, the legs of a stag, and the t

an

inent was supposed to be connected with Tierra del Fuego and was sometimes called Magellanica, in consequence. In the chart that I am describing, Australia is called Jave-la-Gran

remark

co

inding nevertheless, this "largest island in the world" to the south-east of Java, in fact, approximately in the longitudes and latitudes described by Polo; the Portuguese, I say, did the best thing they could both for Mar

to exist. This channel, which is left white in the chart I am describing, is painted over in the specimen dated 1550 [see

r silhouette of the landscape in this pa

n the western and north-western coast, and the great sandy interio

E-NA

f the place-names that occur on this map; those who wish to know more

ong the northern shores of Java, well-known to the Port

from it by a fictitious river named Rio Grande, the Great River, which follows the

res of the coast lines bear the following names:-- Terr

y. It refers to a long stretch of shore at the entrance to King Sounds, where the tides cover immense tracts of co

,* and those near Sharks' Bay, are all charted with the reefs

ord applied to reefs; literal

AME DE SYLLA, written HAME DE SILLE on another of these maps. It is a curious jumble that I h

akers took it for the name o

arch of certain more or less fictitious islands, among which, the "I

f, made Hame de sille look like Hame de fille, and a French geographer jumped at

andt may be seen; but, instead of the girls that they expected to see the island peopled with, they found it overrun by be

y's map of Aus

those pretty creatures for overgrown rats, they called the island Rat Island

for we need not trouble about the southern shores

one of the original name

with reference to Sumbawa and smaller islands around, although out of place with reference to Australia. We next come to Coste Dangereuse, Dangerous Coast. It is situated in the locality of the Great Barrier Reef, not far from the spot where, nearly three hundred years later, Lieutenant Cook, in the Endeavour, was

in, was dug out of the sand a little to the south of Broad Soun

e, mean either "coast of many islands," or "river of many islands." Coste des Herbaiges, Coast of Pastures; it has been suggested that this name gave rise to the term Botany Bay, chosen by Sir Joseph Banks,* ins