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._