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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 Portuguese having discovered in 1525 an island so near as this
  to New Holland, we must believe that the discovery of that continent
  followed very soon after that of this island. It was at that time
  that the controversies between the courts of Portugal and Spain were
  at their highest; the Portuguese, therefore, needed to be cautious
  respecting their new discoveries; they were obliged to conceal them
  carefully. It will not, therefore, be surprising that no mention was
  made in their works of the discovery of New Holland.

  But, after having shown how much importance the Portuguese must have
  attached to the concealment of their discoveries, and having
  examined at what period the discovery of New Holland may have been
  made, it will be not less interesting to inquire how this discovery
  may have become known in France, and afterwards in England, so early
  as 1542. There was nothing at that time to induce the court of
  Portugal to disclose their discoveries to the court of France; there
  was nothing to bind these two courts in intimate union; on the
  contrary, their intercourse had for some time been rather cool. As a
  proof of this, the king of Portugal had in 1543 married his daughter
  Mary to Philip the Infant of Spain, without giving notice thereof to
  Francis I, who thereupon showed his vexation in his conduct towards
  Francis de Norough, the ambassador of Portugal, who, to avoid a
  rupture between the two courts, answered with considerable reserve.
  We cannot, therefore, presume that the court of Portugal would ever
  have frankly communicated its discoveries to the court of France.

  For my part, if it is permitted me to offer a conjecture, I think
  that this information may have resulted from the faithlessness of
  Don Miguel de Sylva, bishop of Viseo, and secretary of La Purité, a
  favourite of the king of Portugal, who, according to De la Clede,
  left the kingdom about 1542, carrying with him some papers of
  importance with which the king had intrusted him.[5] This historian
  adds, that Don John was so indignant at the treachery of his
  favourite, that he outlawed him by a public decree, deprived him of
  all his benefices, and degraded him from his nobility. He decreed
  the same penalties against all his followers, and forbad all his
  subjects to hold any intercourse whatever with him, under pain of
  his displeasure. The count of Portalegre, the brother of the
  fugitive, was even confined as prisoner in the tower of Belem for
  having written to him, and kept under strict guard, until the
  Infanta Maria, on the point of her departure to marry Philip II, the
  son of the emperor Charles V, begged his liberation. The king
  granted the request, on condition that the count should go to
  Arzilla to fight against the Moors, and earn by his services the
  forgiveness of his fault.

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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