The remainder of the coast southward is too irregularly laid down both as to latitude and longitude, and consequently as to correctness of conformation, to admit of any useful conjecture. It must be supposed from the conscientiousness observable in the delineation of other parts of the country, that this portion was laid down more carelessly, or with less opportunity of taking observations. It is by no means improbable, from the length of this coast line, that “Baye Neufve” is Bass’s Straits; that “Gouffre” is Oyster Bay in Tasmania; and that the survey really ceased at the south of that island. That the continuity of the coast forms no ground of objection to this conjecture, may be shown by the fact that on “a general chart exhibiting the discoveries made by Captain Cook, by Lieut. H. Roberts,” the coast is continuous to the south of Van Diemen’s Land, Bass’s Straits being then of course undiscovered. It may also be fairly presumed that the islands in the extreme east of our extract from the Dauphin map, represent New Zealand. If the above reasons have sufficient weight in them to justify the supposition that the extensive country thus laid down on these early maps is really Australia, it becomes a question of the highest interest to ascertain, as nearly as may be, by whom, and at what date, the discovery of this country was made. The maps upon which the supposition of the discovery is alone founded are all French, and that they are all repetitions, with slight variations, from one source, is shown by the fact that the inaccuracies are alike in all of them. But although the maps are in French, there are indications of Portuguese in some of the names, such as Terre ennegade, a Gallicized form of “Tierra anegada,” i.e., “land under water,” or “sunken shoal,” “Graçal,” and “cap de Fromose.” The question then arises, were the French or the Portuguese the discoverers? In reply, we present the following statement.