The fleets of King Solomon penetrated at least to India, and detached
squadrons[114] probably coasted from island to island along the Malay
archipelago; while to descend by gradation to modern times, we may quote
the circumnavigation of Africa by Hanno the Carthaginian,[115] the
discovery of America prior to Columbus by the Chinese in the fifth
century, from the Asiatic side, and by the Norsemen under Leif Ericsson in
the year 1001, from the European; and the anticipation of the so-called
discoveries of Van Diemen and Tasman by the voyages of Arab and other
navigators, from whose records El Edrisi,[116] in the twelfth century, was
enabled to indicate the existence of New Guinea, and, I think, of the
northern coast of Australia. For although the identity with Mexico of the
country called Fu-sang, visited prior to A.D. 499 by the Buddhist priest
Hoei-shiu, has been disputed, yet the arguments in favour of it seem to
preponderate. These were adduced primarily by Deguignes, and subsequently
by C. F. Neumann, Leland and others, and are based on the facts stated in
the short narrative in regard to distance, description of the Maguey
plant, or great aloe,[117] the absence of iron, and abundance of copper,
gold, and silver.
While there can be little question that the islands and land of Wák Wák
are respectively some of the Sunda islands, New Guinea, and the adjacent
portion of Australia, it does not appear to have struck any of the
commentators on this question that the name "islands of Wák Wák" may be
assumed to signify simply "Bird of Paradise islands." Wallace, in his
_Malay Archipelago_, emphatically remarks that in the interior of the
forests of New Guinea the most striking sound is the cry "Wok Wok" of the
great Bird of Paradise, and we may therefore reasonably speculate on the
bird having been known as the Wok Wok, and the islands as the Wok Wok
islands, just as we ourselves use the imitative names of Cuckoo, Morepork,
or Hoopoe for birds, or Snake islands, Ape Hill, &c. for places.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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