“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.’”