In that case, there was no marvel in Cook's striking from New Zealand, in a _direct_ line to the southern extremity of that coast, at Cape Howe, and following the shore northward, instead of seeking a connection with the Dutch Nuyt's discovery to the south-west. He would be going over the old waters traversed by the ships from Spain and Portugal. That gorgeous Dauphin map had its places marked in a sort of Frenchified Portuguese, as if a Dieppe cartographer had not got hold of the right words, or had, for a purpose, disguised them. Thereon, however, we read "coste dangerouse" about the spot where Cook was afterwards wrecked, as well as _Baie des Plantes_ on the site of our _Botany Bay_. The _Gazette Nationale_ writer notes that the _Dauphin_ map, marked with the Arms of France, was discovered, by chance, in the house of a private person, and asks if the news of it could have reached the Dutch, and so got known to a few English before its real presence in London about 1767, it not being there in 1766. Referring to the Librarian, Solander, the French critic of 1807 adds: "That the denomination of _Baie des Plantes_, which he had read upon the Map confided to him, might be a fresh stimulus in the hope of botanizing on this unknown coast, since the memory of it no longer existed, and particularly in a place designated by a name so attractive to him." It is curious that Cook gave Solander's name to the south point of the bay, "as if," says the French writer, "he were pleased to compliment his botanical friend, on perceiving at length this land, the object of his desires, where since it was already named the _Bay of Plants_, he must have hoped to reap an ample harvest." Yet the secret, if so, was well kept till _after_ the voyage of the _Endeavour_, since then _only_ did the name of _Botany Bay_ appear in Dr. Hawkesworth's work. In all Cook's old _Logs_ we see merely _Stingray_ or _Skeat Bay_, and similarly in _all_ the Logs or journals of the chief officers and the petty officers. Or, had Dr. Hawkesworth, Cook, Banks and Solander meanwhile made acquaintance with the appellation of _Baie des Plantes_ and appropriated it for history? This theory would account for the various alterations of _Botany_ on Corner's Log. THE TAKING POSSESSION OF THE TERRITORY. The variations upon this subject are very remarkable. Without noting what is contained in the so-called "Official History" of the "Voyage in the _Endeavour_," it must be allowed that _reported Logs_ of Cook, now in the possession of the Sovereign and the Admiralty, give the general statement that Possession of the Territory was taken by Cook, after leaving the eastern side of New Holland, in the usual form, in the name of the King, as NEW SOUTH WALES. By that name Dr. Hawkesworth publicly acknowledges the country in his work; and by that name it has since been known. It is so seen in the Admiralty Log, though Corner calls it _New Wales_.