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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

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.

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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