Chapter II: Part 2

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-existent map. The unworthy insinuation met with a sensible refutation, we are happy to record, from the pen of a Frenchman, M. Frederic Metz, in a paper printed at p. 261, vol. 47, of _La Revue, ou Decade Philosophique, Littéraire 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 ‘Côte des Herbaiges,’ ‘Rivière de beaucoup
d’Iles,’ ‘Côte 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 of 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....

“As to 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 any one 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
‘Côte 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 the 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, “Côte 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, 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 “Côte 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 “Rivière de beaucoup d’Isles” and “Côte dangereuse” with Cook’s “Bay of Isles” 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 this century, and attracting the attention of the celebrated geographer M. Barbié du Bocage, drew from him the following notice in the _Magasin Encyclopédique_, _douzième année_, 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
the Prince Talleyrand], _read at a Public Session of the
Institute, on the 3rd of July, 1807, by M. Barbié 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 made 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 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 Dépôt 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. Buache, De la Rochette,
Coquebert de Montbret, and others, recognize 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. 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 shew how the knowledge of this
country has been lost even by those who have discovered it.

The most ancient of the atlases which represent the coasts of New
Holland, is that of Rotz or Roty, which is in England, and which
bears the date of 1542. The discovery of New Holland, therefore, is
anterior to the year 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 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 the 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 meridian), for the space of a hundred and eighty degrees 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 been since 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 engagement once entered upon, no more consideration was given
to the sending out 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
this 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 Marañon, 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 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 determining longitudes, the discoveries of the
Portuguese appeared to appropriate more than one hundred and eighty
degrees 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 Marañon, 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 the _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 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 Elvas, on the
frontiers of the two states. Three months were allowed 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 a hundred and eighty degrees, 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, they went away very
discontented, storming, and threatning 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 negociation, the two
courts did not come to a quarrel; they were on 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 right to
these 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 expressed 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;
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.

Castanheda, 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 the 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 in 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 Castanheda. 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 Celebes to seek for
gold, but not having been able to land, were driven by a fearful
tempest upon an 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, lead 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’s 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 men of Gomez de
Sequeira’s Island had long and black hair and beards. We still find
this characteristic distinguishing the natives of New Holland 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’s Islands.

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 a
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 Purité, 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 the king had intrusted him.[5] 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 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 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 these stolen
documents; and it only remains for us to discover what has become of
the originals.

Now, although the theories to which these maps 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. Barbié 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. Barbié du Bocage should have contented himself with referring to Castanheda 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 neighbouring islands, and he will find that the island of 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. 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 a leading inducement for undertaking the voyage, as the object was to relieve the immediate necessities of the settlement at 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 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 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. Barbié 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 of the 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. Barbié 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 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, 1834, 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),[6] of copper colour like themselves, ‘_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 barb
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 leaf, and around their necks a necklace made of 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, although 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.”

We have quoted this somewhat long passage respecting Lord North’s Island, as having an incidental interest in connexion with M. Barbié 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 recognized 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 “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 coast line 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 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 ten degrees 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 reason 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 eastern point however is on a peak of huge extent, which is a manifest blunder or exaggeration. The longitude of the easternmost side, excluding this peak, is in about 187° (or 163° E. 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 approximative 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 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 corresponding 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, as shown in all of 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 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 to the eastward. The reason of this south coast of these islands remaining 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 Moors 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 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 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 we refer 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 of “Coste des Herbaiges,” of which we have already spoken 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 p. xxxiv, and the editor must not fail to state that the unanswerable reason there adduced was 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 conscientiousness 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 Diemen’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 on these 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.

The maps upon which the supposition of the discovery is alone founded are all 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,” “Graçal,” 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 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 François qui a entrepris à estre pilotte pour mener navires à la Terre Amérique qu’on dit Brésil, et semblablement le premier François qui a descouvert les Indes jusqu’à l’Isle de Taprobane, et, si mort ne l’eust pas prévenu, je crois qu’il eust été jusques aux Moluques.” This is 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 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 of 1529 and 1542? Neither the Abbé 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. Léon Guérin, the author of the _Histoire Maritime de France_, Paris, 1843, 8vo.; and of _Les Navigateurs Français_, 8vo., 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, l. 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 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. Barbié 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 those 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’s, has obligingly set on foot inquiries at Rome for the purpose of elucidating this subject, which have not, however, produced any successful result.