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Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook. — John Shaqi

History

Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.

Name: Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.
Author: Major, Richard Henry

Major, Richard Henry

Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Discoveries in geography -- Portuguese; Voyages and travels

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.

Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.

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