BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henrs W, Sage 1891 A'p^H m, _. Cornelt University Library DU 98.1.C71 .Discovery of Australia. 3 1924 028 641 516 98 THE piscx)veRy of Australia. F. CusKlKGHAMB & Co., Printi-rs, 146 Pitt Street, Sydney. THE DISCOV€Ry OF AUSTRALIA. A Critical, Documentary and Historic Investigation Concerning the Priority of Discovery in Australasia by Europeans before the arrival of Lieut. James Cook, in the " Endeavour," in the year 1770. With Illustrations, Charts, Maps, Diagrams, &c. Copious Notes, References, Geographical Index and Index to Names. — *• GGeRGG GGCCinGRlDGG, Member of the Council of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Sydney, New South Wales. Hon. Coeresp. Member of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Melbourne, V^ictoria. Hon. Corrksp. Member of the Neuchateloisb Geographical Society, Nedchatel, Switzerland. Hon. Corresp. Member of the Por'toguese Geographical Society, Lisbon. Hon. Corresp. Member of the Spanish Geog. Soc, Madrid, &c., &c. Founder and First Vice-President of the Art Society OF New South Wales, Sydney. Sydney : hayes brothers, ss & 57 elizabeth street. 1895. rf-^ K Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028641516 TO ^ THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE SIR WILLIAM CHARLES WINDEYER, M.A., LL.D., KNT, CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY, AND SENIOR PUISNE JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT, DEPUTY JUDGE OF THE VICE-ADMIRALTY COURT, AND JUDGE OF THE DIVORCE AND MATRIMONIAL CAUSES COURT, OF NEW SOUTH WALES, EMINENT NO LESS FOR HIS HIGH LEGAL AND SCHOLASTIC ATTAINMENTS, AND HIS WIDE AND ACTIVE LITERARY, SOCIAL, AND INTELLECTUAL SYMPATHIES, THAN FOR HIS DISTINGUISHED. PUBLIC SERVICES, ^hts moxk, DEVOTED TO AN ENQUIRY INTO THE FIRST DISCOVERY OF THE COUNTRY WHICH HAS BEEN THE SCENE OF HIS LIFE AND LABOURS, IS (BY PERMISSION), RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. BY THE SAME AUTHOR: THE EAELr DISCOVERY OP AUSTRALIA. In the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Sydney, Kew South Wales, 1893. A RESUME OF AN ADDRESS ON EARLY AUSTRALIAN DISCOVERY, read at the December, 1891, Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, and further notes on the origin of Early Australian Charts. In the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Sydney, New South Wales, 1893. POINT CLOATES, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, AND THK BIRD CALLED ROKH OR RUKH, BY MARCO POLO. In the Journal and Pro- ceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Sydney, New South Wales, 1893. THE FANTASTIC ISLANDS OF THE INDIAN OCEAN AND OF AUSTRALASIA IN THE MIDDLE AGES, AND THEIR SIGNIFI- CANCE IN CONNECTION WITH THE EARLY CART0GE.4.PHY OF AUSTRALIA. In the Transactions of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Victorian Branch), Melbourne, 1894. CIPANGO, NOT JAPAN. "In the Magazine of American History, New York, 1893. PREMIERE DECOUVERTE DE L'AUSTRALIE, DESCRIl'TION D' ANOIENNES CARTES DE L'AUSTRALIE, leur importance relative- ment ii la d^couverfce de ce continent. In the Bulletin de la Soci^ti N eucTiateloisc de G&ographie, Neuchatel, 1891. RESTAURATION DES PREMIERES CARTES DE L'AUSTRALIE. In the BvlUtin de la Sociit& Neuchateloise de Gdographie, Neuchatel, 1893. THE EARLY CARTOGRAPHY OF JAPAN. In the Geographical Journal, including the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, London, 1894. PREFACE. F the many books which have been published on subjects relating to Australia and Australian History, I am not aware of any, since my late friend Mr. R. H. Major's introduction to his valuable work, " Early Voyages to Terra Australis," which has attempted a systematic investigation into the earliest discoveries of the great Southern Island- Continent, and the first faint indications of know- ledge that such a land existed. Mr. Major's work was published in 1859, at a time when the materials for such an enquiry were much smaller than at present. The means of reproducing and distributing copies of the many ancient maps which are scattered among the various libraries of Europe were then very imperfect, and the science of Comparative Cartography, of which the importance is now well recognised, was in its infancy. For these reasons, his discussion, useful though it still is, cannot be regarded as abreast of modern opportunities. It is, indeed, after the lapse of more than a third of a century, somewhat out of date. Having, therefore, been led to give close attention, during several years, to the whole subject, I have thought the time ripe for the present work. The distance from the great centres and stores of knowledge at which I have been compelled to labour will excuse to the candid critic the errors which will no doubt be discovered, yet I feel some confidence that these will prove to be omissions rather than positive mistakes. No pains have been spared in investigating the full body of documents now available. Though unable to examine personally VUl. PREFACE. some manuscripts of interest and value, I believe I can truly say that I have read every book, and examined every map, of real importance to the question, which has been produced in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch. I have corresponded also largely, during the past four years, with many of the most eminent members of the Geographical Societies of London, Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, Rome, Amsterdam and Neuchatel. To these gentlemen I am deeply indebted for searches which they have made for me in the libraries and museums within their reach, for much information readily and kindly afforded, and for the interest and sympathy which they have at all times manifested in my labours. My thanks are due also to the gentlemen in charge of the Sydney Free Public Library, who kindly enriched their collection with many rare and very useful volumes of permanent importance which I was unable to procure myself, and who aided my researches by every means in their power. I cannot hope that in a subject so vast and interesting I shall be found to have said the last word, yet I trust that my book may prove to be of value, both in itself and as directing the attention of others to a field which should be mainly explored by residents in Australia. Such as it is, I now send it forth, with the natural solicitude of a parent, and commend it to the indulgence of the reader, and the kindly justice of the critic. GEORGE COLLINGRIDGE. " Jave-la-Grande," Hornsby Junction, July, 1895. CONTENTS. DATE. , PAGE. Chapter I. — Introduction ... . . 1 „ II. — The Dawn of Geographical Knowledge, especially with Reference to the Southern Hemisphere 3 „ III. — An Inquiry concerning the Position of North and South in Ancient Geography — The Equatorial Regions Distorted — Taprobana and Ceylon 9 „ IV. A.D. 1-150 — St. Thomas — Strabo — Ptolemy — Galvaiio's Opinion on Ptolemy's Geography 15 „ V. — Early Manuscript Maps of the First Period of the Middle Ages 20 „ VI. „ 1295 — Marco Polo — Java Minor and Java Major — Eive types of Maps with Marco Polo's Nomenclature — Mandeville — Odoric de Pordenone - 26 „ VII. „ — Prince Henry the Navigator 34 VIII. „ 1444— Nicolo de' Conti - 37 „ IX. „ 1457-1459 — Era Mauro Mappamundi - 42 „ X. ,, 1471-1478 — The Equator crossed — Revival of Ancient ideas concerning the sphericity of the Earth — Toscanelli — Columbus 46 „ XI. „ 1479-1484-Toscanelli and Columbus 51 XII. „ 1484-1487— The Cape of Good Hope Reached 56 XIII. „ 1487-1489— Bartholomew Columbus' Lost Map of the World 62 „ XIV. ,, 1487-1489 — British Museum Mappamundi — A possible Copy from Bartholomew Columbus' Map of the World 64 XV. „ 1492— Martin Behaim's Globe 70 XVI. „ 1492 — The Australasian Regions on Martin Behaim's Globe- 76 „ XVII. „ 1499 — Terra Austrahs — Said to be Discovered - 83 XVIII. „ 1500 — Juan de la Cosa's Map — Cantino's Map — Australia the Baptismal Font of Brazil 89 XiX. ,, 1503-1508 — De Gonneville's Alleged Voyage to Australia — Ludovico Barthema . 93 XX. „ 1506-1511— Hunt-Lenox Globe— Ruysch's Mappamundi of 1507-1508 104 XXI. „ 1511 — Conquest of Malacca — D'Abreu's Expedition to the Spice Islands 109 XXII. „ 1512'1521 — Magalhaens and Serrano — Francisco Rodriguez Portolanos 113 XXIII. „ 1515-1517— The Frankfort-Sohonerean Globe of 1515— The Sunda and Molucca Islands as traced in Pedro Reinel's Chart 119 XXIV. „ 1516-1519 — Line of Demarcation of Magalhaens and Pope Alexander VI. 125 LIST OF MAPS AND IXiXiTTSTH-A-TIOlsrS. 1. Abraham Goos' globe ... 2. Adaptation of portion of Dauphin chart, showing the process of distortion resorted to 3. Aztec Calendar or Water Stone 4. Australasian regions on M. Behaim's globe and Hunt-Lenox globe compared 5. Australasian regions on Mercator's (G.) [1569] mappamundi 6. Bay of St. Peter of Arlanza, facing page 7. Bowrey's map (Captain T.) showing Tasman's tracks in his first and second voyages 8. British Museum mappamundi ... 9. Cannibalism 10. Carta Marina o da Navigare ... 11. Cavendish 12. Cavendish's track as it would appear on the Dauphin chart 13. Chaldean conception of the shape of the earth 14. Circular boat of the Tigris and Euphrates from Ninev^eh Sculptures, initial letter Preface 15. Copenhagen mappamundi 16. Dampier ... 17. Dampier's map of Shark's Bay 18. Dampier's rosemary 19. Dauphin chart of Australia ... 20. Dauphin chart of Australia reduced . . . 21. Diego do Couto's hog (Java) ... 22. Diego Ribeiro mappamundi (1529) ... 23. Drake 24. Drake's and Cavendish's tracks as shown on 25. Drake's chair ... 26. Egtis Silla on Behaim's globe and Hame de Sylla on Dauphin chart compared 27. Elephant of Ceylon 28. El Istahkri mappamundi 29. Espiritu Santo (modern map) .. . 30. Era Mauro mappamundi 31. Francisco Rodriguez's portolanos 32. Eranciscus Monachus mappamundi . . . 33. Gerard Mercator's double cordiform mappamundi Jodocus Hondius' map and PAGE . 267 . 307 9 78, 79 . 197 . 255 . 284 . 65 . 192 . 203 . 211 212, 309 4 62 20 290 296 295 172, 173 1 194 165 207 212, 309 204 82 16 23 246 44, 67 116 161 179 XIV. LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 34. Goos, Peter, his map of HoUandia Nova 35. Great Bay of St. Philip and St. James, facing page... 36. Great Bay of St. Lawrence and Port of Monterey, facing page 37. Greek conception of the shape of the earth ... 38. Henry II. mappamundi 39. Hoeius' map 40. Hunt-Lenox globe and Ruysch's mappamundi compared 41. Idolatry... 42. Islands of Gomez de Sequeira .. . 43. Java (Linschoten's) 44. Jean Boze's map of Australia, No. 1 . . . 45. Jean Roze's map of Australia, No. 2 . . . 46. Jean Boze's map of Austraha, No. 2, original projection 47. Juan Vespuccius' mappamundi 48. La Salle mappemonde ... 49. Linschoten 50. MagaUiaens 51. Magellan's ship... 52. Map of the world published with the account of Probisher's voyages 53. Map showing centre of Mendana's discoveries 54. Mar di India map 55. Martin Behaim, from the portrait on his globe 56. Nicolai gores 57. Cannes and Ea, the Greek and Chaldean Fish-Gods 58. Orangerie bay (modern map) ... 59. Oronce Finfe's mappamundi on our projection 60. Oronce Finn's Terra Australia 61. Paris wooden globe (circa 1535) 62. Pentam, &c., on Behaim's globe, compared with modern eastern coasts of Australia 63. Petrus Apianus' mappamundi... 64. Pierres Desceliers' map of Australia ... 65. Portion of Dauphin chart 66. Ports and Bays of the Land of St. Bonaventure, and modern map 67. Portuguese caravel 68. Prince Henry the Navigator ... 69. Ptolemy's Indian Ocean, and comparative position of the Australasian regions 70. Ruysch's mappamundi and Schonerean gores compared 71. Schbner's alleged globe .. . 72. Schoner's Weimar globe 73. Sebastian Cabot mappamundi .. . 74. Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz and New Hebrides 75. St. Sever mappamundi .. . 76. St. Thomas catechising the natives of Zanzibar Island, from Behaim's globe 77. Sunda and Molucca Islands as traced on Pedro Reinel's chart 78. Torres' track from the New Hebrides to Torres Straits 79. Track of the " Duyfken " and PAOB 286, 287 ... 246 . . . • • • 252 . . . ... 11 191 ... 278 106, 107 ... 193 ... 314 . . . ... 221 182, 183 184 185 132 131 .. 215 126 138 202 226 276 76 88, 223 3 252 177 84, 176 83 Tasmania 81 130 192, 193 307 250, 251 171 34 17 120 121 156 ... 178 190 218 24 ... 15 123 237 . . . ... 240 LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. XV. 80. Triton bay (modern map) 81. Turin mappamundi 82. Taugondy's map of New Holland ... 83. View of Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope 84. West coast of bogus Sumatra in Ruysch's mappamundi compared with modern west Australia ... 85. World as apprehended by the Portuguese and Italians 86. World of Ptolemy 87. Wytfliet's map of the Continent of Australia coast of 255 21 305 57 78 47 47 219 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTIOK "Lifted up on the vast wave, he quickly beheld afar!' — Homer. ■^-tA»- ■ . =a^^^s^ may some day, perhaps in 1899, hold an International Exhibition, even as America held one in Chicago to commemorate the four-hundredth anni- versary of her discovery. Looking broadly at the question of American discovery, C. Columbus may be said to have discovered America in 1492 ; but the controversy on the question, for the critic who likes to inquire into details, is not settled yet. Concerning the discovery of Australia, we are further off still from a solution than our cousins of the New World. This is ovfing partly to the fact that the matter has not yet received with us the same amount of attention. Lately, there has been found a wooden globe, now in Paris, '^^ on which an inscription occurs to the effect that the Terra Australis was discovered in 1499. The assertion needs confirmation, of course, like all other assertions, without exception, relating to discoveries. The initial sketch-map above is a very much reduced adaptation of the Dauphin Chart of Australia which accompanies Chapter XXX. * This curious globe is preserved in the geographical department of the Paris National Library (No. 386). For further particulars concerning this globe, we refer our readers to the admirable work by Heni-y Harrisse, "The Discovery of North America," where it is described, page 613. H. Harrisse ascribes to it the date of circa, 1535. 2 The Discovery op Australia. The whole question of early Australasian maritime discovery is so thoroughly enveloped in mystery that it will require not only the greatest care to fathom it, but also the greatest impartiality and circumspection to decide to whom the honor of priority of discovery is due. As an instance, if we suppose that Captain Cook (Lieut, at the time) discovered the eastern sea-board, which, by the way, is the generally accepted behef, we are met at the outset by the rebuffing testimony of old charts presenting every portion of that coast line clearly set down more than two hundred years before his arrival in these seas. Then, if, taking a step backward, we consider the claims of the next candidate for the honor, we are confronted by Tasman. What discoveries did he make ? The old charts we have referred to preclude the possibility of a discovery by him of the western and eastern shores. As to the northern and southern coasts, which are not given on the said charts, there is much incertitude. Who shall say who discovered them? Again, while, as we shall show, the Portuguese and Spaniards were as a nation the first Europeans to navigate in Australian waters and must have discovered Australia, we find no narrative of their discoveries as far as the continent of Australia is concerned. Furthermore, when we consult the maps, the prototypes of which were made by them, and on which the Australian continent, although evidently distorted for a purpose, is set down with a fair amount of accuracy, we find these very documents borrowing certain features and a certain nomenclature from older representations on globed and maips. We are thus thrown back to a period that antedates the arrival of their fleets in the southern hemisphere. These older globes and maps connect us with the Ptolemaic period, which, being one of retrogression in a certain measure, makes it imperative for us to begin our inquiries with the very dawn of geographical knowledge. The Discovert op Australia. CHAPTER II, The Dawn op Geographical Knowledge, Especially with Rbperence to the Southern Hemisphere. have said that the Ptolemaic period was one of retrogression in a certain measure. This is apparent when we take into consideration the fact that the earher ideas concerning the sphericity of the earth were generally discredited by Europeans during the prevalence of the Ptolemaic system, which lasted thirteen centuries. Ptolemy, however, is not alto- gether, if at all, responsible for this ; as many errors got abroad during the prevalence of manuscript copying, and even after the introduction of printing, that were afterwards attributed to him and other classical authors. It is, therefore, a difficult task to separate the true teachings of early philosophers from the errors introduced subsequently and which became crystallized in the first printed editions of their works, appearing early in the sixteenth century. But it is a task that is being performed by comparing the traditions and records of western and eastern civilizations. During what has been termed the dark ages in Europe, Oriental writers preserved in many instances more faithful tradi- tions, and were more versed in the sciences than the most eminent men of their time in Europe. Such men as Albert-le-Grand, Bacon, Pierre d'Abano, Dante, &c., began the work of revision ; it is owing to their knowledge of Oriental languages that they became pre-eminent among their contemporaries, and they often refer to Oriental authors in matters connected with geography, cosmography, astronomy and kindred sciences. However, in order to fully appreciate the changes that took place with regard to this matter, we must begin at the beginning, for owing to the connection and continuity that exist in all geographical representations, we might overlook or fail to understand many cartographic particularities if we did not get a clear conception of their origin. We must bear in mind the theories of early cosmology and the With the initial W above are represented Cannes and Ea, the Greek and Chaldean Fish-Gods. The Discovert op Australia. motives that obtained later on, whereby many features of archaic cosmography may have been altered ; as, for instance, the placing of islands in the northern hemisphere, which, in reality, belonged to the southern one. It has now been ascer- tained and demonstrated beyond doubt that the earliest ideas concerning the laws of the universe and the shape of the earth were, in many respects, more correct and clearer than those of a subsequent period.* Let us see what they were. The author of " Chaldea "r says :— " Ac- cording to Mr. Francois Lenormant,! the Shumiro- Accads had formed a very elaborate and clever idea of what they supposed the world to be like ; they imagined it to have the Chaldean conception of the shape of the earth. shape of an inverted|| round boat or bowl, the thickness of which would represent the mixture of land and water (kl-a) which we call the crust of the earth, while the hollow beneath this inhabitable crust was fancied as a bottomless pit or abyss (ge), • Mr. Hyde Clarke has more than once pointed out " The legend of the Atlantis of Plato," Royal Historical Society, 1886, &c., that Australia must have been known in the most remote antiquity of the early history of civilisation, at a time when the intercourse with America was still maintained. It is certainly remarkable, as we learn from classic authors, that the school of Pergamos taught that the earth was divided into four worlds or regions. These were the Great World or Northern Continent (Asia, Europe, and Africa), the Austral or Southern World (Australia), the Northern World, opposite this continent- speaking from Europe — (North America), and the Southern W^orld, to balance the Austral World (South America). All these were stated to be inhabited.— Navis, Australia and the Ancients, " Notes & Queries," vol. 5, p. 356, May 5, 1888. t "Chaldea from the Earliest Times to the Kise of Assyria, &c.," by Z6naide A. Ragozin, London, 1889, p. 133. t Lenormant, in the English translation of his " La magie chez les Chald^ens," which is a revised and enlarged edition of that French work which appeared in the autumn of 1874. says, page 151 : — ' ' Let us imagine then a boat turned over, not such an one as we are in the habit of seeing, but a round skiff like those which are still used, under the name of Kufa, on the shores of the lower Tigris and Euphrates, and of which there are many representations in the historical sculptures of the Assyrian palaces, the sides of this round skiff bend upwards from the point of the greatest width, so that they are shaped like a hollow sphere deprived of two-thirds (sic, for one-third, as the context shows— G.C.) of its height, and showing a circular opening at the point of division. Such was the form of the earth according to the authors of the Accadian magical formulae and the Chaldean astrologers of after years. We should express the same idea in the present day by comparing it to an orange of which the top had been cut off, leaving the orange upright upon the flat surface thus produced," II See sketch. The Discovery op Australia. 5 in which dwelt many powers. Above the convex surface of the earth (kt-a) spread the sky (ana), itself divided into two regions— the highest heaven or firmament, which, with the fixed stars immovably attached to it, revolved, as round an axis or pivot, around an immensely high mountain, which joined it to the earth as a pillar, and was situated somewhere in the far North- East — some say North — and the lower heaven, where the planets — a sort of resplendent animals, seven in number, of beneficent nature — wandered forever on their appointed path. To these were opposed seven evil demons, sometimes called The Seven Fiery Phantoms. But above all these, higher in rank and greater in power, is the Spirit (Zi) of heaven (ana), Zi-Ana, or, as often, simply Ana — Heaven. Between the lower heaven and the surface of the earth is the atmospheric region, the realm of Im or Mbrmer, the Wind, where he drives the clouds, rouses the storms, and whence he pours down the rain, which is stored in the great reservoir of Ana, in the heavenly Ocean. As to the earthly Ocean, it is fancied as a broad river, or watery rim, flowing all round the edge of the imaginary inverted bowl ; in its waters dwells Ea,* or The Exalted Fish, or on a magnificent ship, with which he travels round the earth, guarding and protecting it." See accompanying sketch of an inverted Chaldean boat transformed into a terrestrial globe, which will give an idea of the possible appearance of early globes. Now, it is remarkable that the Greeks, adopting the earlier Chaldean ideas concerning the sphericity of the earth, believed also in the circumfluent ocean ; but they appear to have removed its position from latitudes encircling the Arctic regions to a latitude in close proximity to the equator. Noth withstanding this encroachment of the external ocean, — encroachment which may have obliterated indications of a certain northern portion of Australia, and which certainly filled those regions with the great earth-surrounding river Okeanos, — the traditions relating to the existence of an island, of immense extent, beyond the known world, were kept up, for they pervade the writings of many of the authors of antiquity. One of the most striking of the traditions we refer to is quoted by R. H. Majorf in the following terms : — "In a fragment of the works of Theopompus, preserved by -^lian, is the account of a conversation between Silenus and Midas, King of Phrygia, in which the former says that Europe, Asia, and Africa were lands surrounded by the sea ; but that beyond this known world was another island, of immense extent, of which he gives a description. The account of this conversation, which is too • Beroaus, the priestly historian of Babylon, in reporting the legend concerning the arrival of Ea from the East, seems to have given the God's name Ea-^cmi (Ea the, Fish) under the corrupted Greek form of Cannes. tR. H. Major, " Early Voyages to Australia," p. ii. line 27. 6 The Discovert op Australia. lengthy here to give in full, was written three centuries and a half before the Christian era. Not to trouble the reader with Greek, we give an extract from the English version by Abraham Fleming, printed in 1576, in the amusingly quaint but vivid language of the time : — " The Thirde Booke of ^lianus. — Page jy. " H Of the famiharitie of Midas, the Phrigian, and Selenus, and of certaine circumstances which he incredibly reported. " Theopompus declareth that Midas, the Phrygian, and Selenus were knit in familiaritie and acquaintance. This Selenus was the sonne of a nymphe inferiour to the gods in condition and degree, but superiour to men concerning mortalytie and death. These twaine mingled communication of sundrye thynges. At length, in processe of talke, Selenus tolde Midas of certaine ilandes, named Europia, Asia, and Libia, which the ocean sea circumscribeth and compasseth round about ; and that without this worlde there is a continent or percell of dry lande, which in greatnesse (as hee reported) was infinite and unmeasurable ; that it nourished and maintained, by the benefite of the greene medowes and pasture plots, sundrye bigge and mighty beastes ; that the men which inhabite the same climats exceede the stature of us twise, and yet the length of their life is not equall to ours ; that there be many and divers great citties, manyfold orders and trades of living ; that their lawes, statutes, and ordinaunces are different, or rather clean contrary to ours. Such and lyke thinges dyd he rehearce." Major adds : — " The remainder of this curious conversation, however apparently fabulous, deserves attention from the thoughtful reader." The peculiar Chaldean opinion relating to the boat-shaped form of the earth is commented upon by Mr. Gladstone in his " Homeric Synchronysms." Speaking of F. Lenormant's description, Gladstone says : — " He (Lenormant) observes that the meaning of scaphoeides is the form of a boat reversed, and that the boats of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates were circular. They are so represented on the Nineveh sculptures (Hawlinson, note on Herodotus, i. 194) ; and they may still be seen on these rivers in the like form." " But he (Lenormant) does not notice," says Gladstone, " what we learn from Colonel Chesney (Expedition to the Euphrates and Tigris; vol. i. p. 57; vol. ii. p. 640 ; and RawHnson as before cited) - namely, that the side of the boat curves inwards, so that w hen reversed the figure of it would be like an orange with a slice taken off the top, and then set on its flat side. The Chaldean conception, thus rudely described, shows a yet nearer approximation (to say the least) to the true doctrine concerning the form of the globe, when we bear in mind that this actually is in shape a flattened sphere, with the vertical diameter (so to speak) the shorter one." The Discovery of Australia. 7 Comparing these early notions, as to the shape and extent of the habitable world, with the later ideas which limited the habitable portion of the globe to the equatorial regions, we may surmise how it came to pass that islands — to say nothing of continents which could not be represented for want of space*— belonging to the southern hemisphere were set down as belonging to the northern hemisphere. We have no positive proof of this having been done at a very early period, as the earlier globes and maps have all disappeared ; but we may safely conjecture as much, judging from copies which have been handed down. Globes especially — as being more explicit, because not presenting the difficulties of planispheric projection — would have been useful, for they would have shown us exactly what early geographical knowledge must have been in this respect ; unfortunately, whereas the earliest recorded mention of an earth globe is of the one made by Crates (200 B.C.), ten feet in diameter and described by Strabo, — Geographica ; Book ii. cap. v. 1 10 — the earliest one extant dates no further back than the year 1492. This is the well- known globe of Martin Behaim, of Nuremberg. Early maps of the world, as distinguished from globes, take us back to a some- what remoter period ; they all bear most of the disproportions of the Ptolemaic geography, for none belonging to the pre-Ptolemaic period are known to exist. The influence of the Ptolemaic astronomical and geographical system was very great, and lasted for over thirteen hundred years. Even the Arabs, who, after the fall of the Roman Empire, developed the geographical knowledge of the world during the first period of the middle a^es, adopted many of its errors. With reference to the earliest opinions concerning a knowledge of an Australian Continent, B. H. Major sayst : — "Among the very early writers, the most striking quotation that the editor has lighted upon in connection with the southern continent, is that which occurs in the astronomicon of Manilius, lib. i. lin. 234, et seq., where, after a lengthy dissertation, he says : — ' Ex quo coUigitur terrarum forma rotunda ; Hanc circum varise gentes hominum atque ferarum, Aeriseque colunt volucres. Pars ejus ad arctos Eminet, Austrinis pars est habitabilis oris, Sub pedibusque jacet nostris. ' ■" A curious example of the difficulties that early cartographers of the circumfluent ocean period had to' contend with, and of the sansfofon method of dealing with them, occurs in the celebrated Fra Mauro Mappamundi, which is one of the last in which the external ocean is still retained. On this map of the world the islands of the Malay Archipelago follow the shores of Asia from Malacca to Japan. Borneo, Scelebes and the Philippines are left out, and the cartographer, conscious of his omissions, excuses himself naively in these terms: "In questo Mar Oriental sono molte isole grande e famose che non ho posto per non aver luogo : In this Oriental sea there are great many large and well-known islands, that I have not set down, because I had no room." After this admission there was room for improvement. tR. H. Major, " Eirly Voyages to Australia," Introduction, p. xii. line I4th. 8 The Discovert op Australia. The latter clause of this sentence, so strikingly applying to the lands in question, has been quoted as a motto for the title page of this volume — Early Voyages to Australia. The date at which Manilius wrote, though not exactly ascertained, is supposed, upon the best conclusions to be drawn from the internal evidence supplied by his poem, to be of the time of Tiberius. " Aristotle also, in his Meteorologica, lib. ii. cap. 5, has a passage which, though by no means so distinct as the preceding, speaks of two segments of the habitable globe, one towards the north, the other towards the south pole, and which have the form of a drum. Aratus, Strabo, and Geminus have also handed down a similar opinion, that the torrid zone was occupied throughout its length by the ocean, and that the band of sea divided our continent from another, situated, as they suppose, in the southern hemisphere. (See Aratus, Phoenom., 537 ; Strabo, i. 7, p. 130, and i. 17; Crates apud Geminum, Elementa Astronomica, c. Ixiii. in the Uranologia, p. 31)." In the IX. century Al-Mamoun had Ptolemy's geography translated, which became the Almageste, or Great Book of the Arabs. In the course of time, through practical experience acquired in their extensive voyages to the east and south-east, the Arabs wrought many improvements in their maps. An important one was introduced in their maps of the Indian Ocean, and that is : — after having been set down as a Mediterranean, or enclosed sea, by their predecessors, they represented it as an open sea again, as in the days of Homer and in the geography of Erathosthenes. Ptolemy's fantastic islands of the Indian Ocean — fantastic inasmuch as they had been shifted from the southern to the northern hemisphere —reappear during the later Arabian period in the southern hemisphere ; but, strangely enough, with others, which in their turn become fantastic — so to speak — inasmuch as they are set down in the southern while belonging to the regions north of the equator ; the latter mistake being traceable, principally, to an erroneous interpretation of the writings of the two great Venetian travellers Marco Polo and Nicolo de' Conti. Thus we have a threefold source of information— a Greek, an Arabian, and an ItaHan— and we shall find this threefold character in the nomenclature of the islands we refer to. The Discovery of Australia. CHAPTER III. An Inquiry Concerning the Position of North and South in Ancient Geography. — The Equatorial Regions Distorted. — Taprobana and Ceylon. lo mi volsi a man destra, e posi mente All' altro polo ; e vidi quattro stelle Non viste mai, fuor oh' alia prima gente Goder pareva '1 ciel di lor fiamraelle. O settentrional vedovo sito, Poiclie private se' di mirar quelle ! — Dante, Purgatorio, Canto I. ET US now examine some of the peculiarities of geographical evolution. One of these peculiarities is of very great importance, to say the least, and has never, to our knowledge, been commented upon, or noticed by carto- graphers or others with reference to the pertubation and errors that it may have occasioned. It relates to the position of north and south. We have seen that according to the earliest geographical notions the habitable world was represented as having the shape of an inverted round boat, with a broad river or ocean flowing all round its rim, beyond which opened out the Abyss or bottomless pit, which was beneath the habitable crust. The description is sufficiently clear, and there is no mistaking its general sense, the only point that needs elucidation being that which refers to the position of the earth or globe as viewed by the spectator. With the initial L of this Chapter is represented an Aztec Calendar or Water-Stone, drawn in fao-simile and reduced from the illustration ia Mr. Thomas Crawford Johnston's paper, " Did the Phoenicians discover America ?" which appeared in a special bulletin of the Geographical Society of California ; dated San Francisco, September 15, 1892. Speaking of this stone Mr. Johnston says : — " And perhaps more curious still, we find among the remains of this people in the ancient and capital city of Mexico what has been called a calendar stone, which any one may see at a glance is a national monument of a seafaring people in the form of a mariner's compass, and to which they probably attributed the fact that they had discovered the new world." Pages 12 and 13. 10 The Discovbey of Australia. Our modern notions and our way of looking at a terrestrial globe or map with the north at the top, would lead us to conclude that the abyss or bottomless pu of the inverted Chaldean boat, the Hades and Tartaros of the Greek conception, should be situated to the south, somewhere in the Antarctic regions. There are reasons to believe, however, apart from the evidence we gather in the Poems,* that these abyssal regions were supposed or believed to be situated around the North Pole. European mariners and geographers of the Homeric period considered the bearing of land and sea only in connection with the rising and setting of the sun and with the four winds Boreas, Euros, Notos, and Sephuros. These winds covered the arcs intervening between our four cardinal points of the compass, which points were not located exactly as with us ; but the north leaning to the east, the east to the south, the south to the west and the west to the north (see Turin Map). These mariners and geographers adopted the plan— an arbitrary one— of consider- ing the earth as having the north above and the south below, and, after globes or maps had been constructed with the north at the top, and this method had been handed down to us, we took for granted that it had obtained universally and in all times. Such has not been the case, for the earliest navigators, the Phoenicians, the Arabs, the Chinese, and perhaps all Asiatic nations, considered the south to be above and the north below. The reason for this is plausible, for whereas the northern seaman regulated his navigation by the north star, the Asiatic sailor turned to southern constellations for his * The internal evidence of the Poeraa points to a northern aa well as a southern location for the entrance to the infernal regions. Mr. Gladstone seems to incline to this opinion when he says (" Homer," p. 60, H 4. The Outward Geography Eastwards) : — "The outer geography eastwards, or wonderland, has for its exterior boundary the great river Okeanos, a noble conception, in everlasting flux and reflux, roundabout the territory given to living man. On its farther bank lies the entrance to the Under world ; aud the passage, which connects the sea (Thrdaua, or Pontes) with Okeanos, lies in the east : ' where are the abodes of the morning goddess, and the risings of the sun ' (Od. xii. 3). Here, however, he makes his hero confess that he is wholly out of his bearings, and cannot well say where the sun is to set or to rise {Od. x. 139). This bewildered state of mind may be reasonably explained. The whole northern region, of sea as he supposed it, from west to east, was known to him only by Phoenician reports. One of these told him of a Kimmerian land deprived perpetually of sun or daylight. Another of a land, also in the north, where a man, who could dispense with sleep, might earn double wages, as there was hardly any night. He probably had the first account from some sailor who had visited the northern latitudes in summer ; and the second from one who had done the like in winter. They were at once true, and for him irreconcilable. So he assigned the one tale to a northern country (Kimmerife) on the ocean-mouth eastwards, near the island of Kirkfe, and the other to the land of the Laistrugonas westwards but also northern, and lying at some days' distance from Aiolife ; but was compelled, by the ostensible contradiction, to throw his latitudes into something like purposed confusion." The author suggests the following as another probable source of information : — The Phoinikes of Homer are the same Phoenicians who as pilots of King Solomon's fleets brought gold and silver, ivory, apes and peacocks from Asia beyond the Ganges and the East Indian islands. The Phoenician reports referred to by Mr. Gladstone came most likely, therefore, not so much from the north, as from these regions which, tradition tells us (See Fra Mauro's Mappamundi), were situated propinqua ale tenebre. Volcanoes were supposed to be the entrances to the infernal regions, and towards the south-east the whole region beyond the river Okeanos of Homer, from Java to Sumbawa and the sea of Bandu, was sufficiently studded with mighty peaks to warrant the idea they may have originated. Then in a north-easterly direction Homer's great river Okeanos would flow along the shores of the Sandwich group, where the volcanic peak of Mt. Kilauea towers three miles above the ocean. Indeed, wherever we look round the margin of the circumfluent ocean for an appropriate entrance to Hades and Tartaros, we flnd it, whether in Japan, Iceland, the Azores, or Cape Verde Islands. The Discovert op Australia. 11 guidance. Many cartographers of the renascence, whose charts indeed we cannot read unless we reverse them, must have followed Asiatic cartographical methods, and this perhaps through copying local charts obtained in the countries visited by them. It is strange that Mr. Gladstone, in pointing out so cleverly that the Chaldean conception was more in accordance with the true doctrine concerning the form of the globe than had been suspected, fails, at the same time, to notice that Homer in his brain-map reversed the Chaldean terrestrial globe and placed the north at the top. This is all the more strange when we take into consideration that, in the light of his context, the fact is apparent and of great importance as coinciding with other European views concerning the location of the north on terrestrial globes and maps. These are Mr. Gladstone's words : — " The surface of the vessel represented is the world which we inhabit. The mouth lies downward. In the hollow of the solid dwell the Earth-genii of Tartaros and the Spirits of the dead. Over it extends the compacted mass of Heaven, with its astral bodies. All this seems to have been adopted by Homer. But, more- over, the Chaldean Heaven rested upon columns, about which it revolved ; these columns were not at the zenith of the heaven, which was immediately over Accad but at the ' Mountain of the East.'* And even so Homer sets his heaven upon columns, but places them with his Atlas in the Souths To resume briefly : — ^^The Chaldeans placed their north below ; Homer placed his north above. See accompanying sketch. The Chaldeans placed their heaven in the east or north-east ; Homer placed his heaven in the south or south-west. During the middle ages, we shall see a reversion take place, and the terrestrial paradise and heavenly paradise placed according to the earlier Chaldean notions ; and on maps of this epoch, encircling the known world from the North Pole to the equator, flows the antic Ocean, which in days of yore encircled the infernal regions. In this ocean we And also Ea the Exalted Fish, but, deprived of his ancient grandeur and divinity, he is, no doubt, considered nothing more than a Greek conception of the shape of the eartli. ' North-ea.st, some say north," according to Ragozin. — Note of author. 12 The Discovert of Australia. mer-man at the period when acquaintance is renewed with him on the Frankfort gores of Asiatic origin bearing date 1515. See Mappamundi bearing that date. At a later period, during which planispheric maps, showing one hemisphere of the world, may have been constructed, the circumfluent ocean must have encircled the world as represented by the geographical exponents of the time being ; albeit, in a totally different way than expressed in the Shumiro-Accadian records. The divergence was probably owing, in a great measure, to the inability of representing graphically the perspective appearance of the globe on a plane ; but may be also traceable to an erroneous interpretation of the original idea, caused by the reversion of the cardinal points of the compass. Afterwards came the geographical period, 500 B.C., when Thales drew the equator across the globe ; but the original design of this line of demarcation became confused also, and so misapplied that it was made to follow the southern rim of the ocean that girt the world. This extraordinary manner of distorting the equatorial regions was repeated in mediaeval charts, and one of its last representations is nowhere more remarkable than in Fra Mauro's celebrated Mappamundi of 1457-59, a very much reduced fac-simile of which is given elsewhere. The zone or climate division of the world was propounded about the same time. According to this division, other continents south of the equator were supposed to exist, and habited some said, but not to be approached by those inhabiting the northern hemisphere on account of the presumed impossibility of traversing the equatorial regions, the heat of which was believed to be too intense. It follows from all this that, as mariners did actually traverse those regions and penetrate south of the equator, the islands they visited most, such as Java, its eastern prolongation of islands, Sumbawa, &c., were believed to be in the northern hemisphere, and were consequently placed there by geographers, as the earliest maps of the various editions of Ptolemy's Geography bear witness. To these first sources of confusion may be added another that originated with the misleading accounts in which Ceylon and Sumatra were indiscriminately described under the Greek name of Taprobana,* and this confusion of one island with the other led to various forms of distortion ; sometimes Ceylon was placed in the longitude and latitude of Sumatra ; at other times, Sumatra was placed where Ceylon stands ; but as Sumatra was known by some to be cut in two by the equator, Ceylon had to be enlarged so as to extend sufficiently south to allow for it being bisected by the tnre *y^?J^^r T' *''/ ^'tf^ f°""P*i°°.,"f t^? "Tamravarrm." of Arabian, or even, perhaps, Phoenician, nomenola- ; our modern Sumatra. See " Albervini's India," vol. 1 , p. 296. c a , , The Discovert of Australia. 13 equator as mentioned. Then, again, islands lying south of the equator came to be taken for Ceylon — Ceram, for instance. These mistakes were the result, doubtless, of an erroneous interpretation of information received ; and the most likely period during which cognizance of these islands was obtained was when Alexandria was the centre of the Eastern and Western commerce of the world. About this time Erathosthenes was the chief or great Librarian at Alexandria (230-220 B.C.). Geographical science was on the eve of reaching its apogee with the Greeks, ere it was doomed to retrograde with the decline of the Roman Empire. The views of the three great Greek astronomers and cartographers — Dicearchus, Erathosthenes and Hipparchus (300 to 125 B.C.) — comprising the origin of degrees of longitude and latitude, the inauguration of the principle of stereographic projection and the division of the circle into 360 degrees, give us an idea of the progress made at the time. Although these views were continued and developed tc a certain extent by their successors, Strabo and Ptolemy, through the Roman period, and more or less entertained during the Middle Ages, they became obscured as time rolled on. The earliest known maps of the mediaeval epoch present the appearance of rough delineations of land and water, a corrupted nomenclature, and no reference whatsoever to degrees of longitude or latitude. No geographical progress, in fact, was made by Europeans until Marco Polo, Odoric of Pordenone, and Nicolo de' Conti, the three great Italian travellers, revealing afresh the vast extent and wonders of the eastern and southern hemisphere, created the interest that brought about the re-discovery of new worlds. But to return to the earlier Pre-Ptolemaic period which we have left, and to form an idea of the chances of information which the traffic carried on in the Indian Ocean may have offered to the Greeks and Romans, let us listen to what Galvano* says, quoting Strabo- and Pliny (Strabo, lib. 17 ; Plinius, lib. 12, cap. 18). The quaint phraseology of his translator runs thus : — " For the trafficke grew so exceeding great that they sent every yeere into India a hundred and twenty ships laden with wa,res, which began to set saile from Myos-Hormos about the middle of July, and returned backe againe within one yeere. The marchandise which they did carrie amounted unto one million two hundred thousand crownes ; and there was made in returne of every crown an hundred. In so much, that by reason of this increase of wealth the matrones, or noble women, of that time and place (Rome), spent infinitely in decking themselves with precious stones, purple, pearles, gum benzoin, frankincense, musk, amber, sandal wood, aloes, and other perfumes, and trinkets, and the like ; whereof the writers and historians of that age speake very greatly." • " The discoveries of the world from their first original unto the year of our Lord, 1555, by Antonio Galvano, Governor of Ternate." Corrected, quoted, and published in England by Richard Hakluyt (1601J, p. 47. 14 The Discovery of Australia. Now, as the above articles of commerce, mentioned by Strabo and Pliny, after leaving their original ports in Asia and Austral- Asia, were conveyed from one island to another, any information — when sought for — concerning the location of the islands from which the spices came, must necessarily have been of a very unreliable character, for the different islands at which any stay was made were invariably confounded with those from which the spices originally came.* We shall see, when dealing with Ptolemy's map of the world, some of the results of this confusion. * Such misnomers as Turhiy-coch and Turkey rhvharh remind one of the same peculiar way of confusing names. The Discovery of Australia. 15 CHAPTER IV- AD. 1-1 50. St. Thomas. Strabo. Ptolemy. Galvano's Opinion on Ptolemy's Geography. TIRING the first years of the first century of our epoch there hved two personages of a somewhat different character, but having both a claim on our attention as connected, more or less, with our subject. These two personages are : St. Thomas the Apostle, ^g^^Bj^^^B / ^^^ Strabo the Greek geographer. I ^Tm^bT^'^!^!^^^^^^ According to the " Lives of the Saints," St. Thomas, after the dispersion of the Apostles, preached the Gospel to the Parthians and Persians ; then went to India, where he gave up his life for Jesus Christ. John the III., King of Portugal, ordered his remains to be sought for in a little ruined chapel that was over his tomb, outside Meliapur or Maliapor. The earth was dug in 1523, and a vault was discovered shaped like a chapel. The bones of the holy apostle were found, with some relics which were placed in a rich vase. The Portuguese built near this place a new town which they called St. Thomas or San-Thom6. We shall have to refer to this town, when the name first appears in chronological sequence. In Strabo's Geography* there are these four points of importance with reference to our subject : — 1st. That he corroborates Homer's views as to the sphericity of the earth by describing Crates' terrestrial globe (Geographica ; Book ii. cap. v. § 10). 2nd. That he accentuates Homer's views concerning the black races which lived some in the west (the African race) others in the east (the Australian race). 3rd. That he shows the four cardinal points of the compass to have been situated somewhat differently than with us, for he says (Book 1, c. iv. § 6) : — " . . . So that if the extent of the Atlantic Ocean were not an obstacle, we might easily pass from Iberia to India, still keeping in the same parallel . . . &c." This is the idea that C. Columbus endeavoured to put into practice ; but had he followed the parallel With the initial D of this Chapter is represented St. Thomas catechising the inhabitants of Zanzibar island as represented on Martin Behaim's globe of 1492. * Bohn's Classical Library. 16 The Discovery of Australia. mentioned, instead of reaching the islands now called the West Indies, he would have reached the latitude where New York now stands. Again, if we consider the Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans as devoid of the American Continent, and the Atlantic Ocean as stretching to the shores of Asia, as Strabo did, the parallel of Iberia (Spain) would have taken Columbus' ships to the north of Japan — i.e., much further north than the India of Strabo. 4th. That he appears to be perpetuating an ancient tradition when he supposes the existence of a vast continent or antichthonos in the southern hemisphere to counterbalance the weight of the northern continents. From these facts, and many others, such as the positions given to the Mountain of the East or North-East of the Shumiro-Accads, the Mountain of the South, or South-West, of Homer, and the Infernal Regions, we may conclude that the North Pole of the Ancients was situated somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Sea of Okhotsk. The relativeness of these positions appears to have been maintained on some mediaeval maps. See the Turin Mappainundi and Era Mauro's. PTOLEMY'S MAP OF THE WORLD. A.D. 15©. F we consult the scanty evidence distributed here and there during the middle ages in old manuscripts, cosmographies, maps, &c., we shall see by the data they furnish how slowly the geographical evolution proceeded. Hundreds of years elapsed without any apparent progress. Yet, progress of a practical kind was being made all the time. Whilst, as Galvano's Translator''"' quaintly puts it : " All the world was in a hurly burly"; the Arabs were extending their navigations and trade to Malacca and China. Then the great period of general renascence brought about a revival in geography as in other studies, and conjecture gave way to truth, as navigators gradually penetrated to the furthermost regions of the earth. But even then the first flush of revival brought back Ptolemy to the front, and it was some time before the errors and disproportions of his system were rejected. Our initial I Las a representation of an elephant of Ceylon taken from an old edition of Ptolemy's geography. *6alvano, page 51. The Discovert of Australia. 17 Witness the pertinacity with which C. Columbus maintained and always believed to the last, that he had reached India — the India of Marco Polo, Nicolo de' Conti, Pierre d' Ailly, and Toscanelli — aye, the India of the Ancients — when amongst the islands of the West Indies and on the north coast of South America. The early editions of Ptolemy contain a map of the world, which is, — for aught we know to the contrary — in design and information contemporaneous with Ptolemy himself The sketch given here shows the Indian Ocean of a map of the world in an edition of " La Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo Alexandrino," published in Venice in: 1574, the configuration of which map dates probably as far back as A.D. 150, which is about the period at which Ptolemy compiled his great work. In the entire map the degrees of longitude extend from the Canary Islands on the west coast of Africa to the longitude of Hong Kong, or thereabouts on the east coast of China. Towards the south the limits of the known world do not extend beyond the 16th degree of latitude. In the portion of the southern hemisphere comprised within these limits — that is, to the south of the China Sea, we should find the greater or southern half of Sumatra, the island of Java, and a south-western portion of Borneo. What do we really find depicted ? 18 The Discovert of Australia. The northern rim of a continent called Terra incognita, which might comprise a portion of the coast of Australia, but connected east and west by a continuous line of coast. On this coast the continuous line runs north, passes the equator, and, still running north, connects with the east coast of China. On the west the continuous line of coast follows the 16th parallel until it reaches the east coast of Africa, a Kttle below the island Menuthias, the modern Zanzibar. By the above description we notice that the Indian Ocean becomes a Mediter- ranean or enclosed sea. The islands set down to the north of Australia are: — Ceylon, which bears the Greek name Taprobana, and is traversed in its southern parts by the equatorial line, thus actually confounded with and in certain respects representing Sumatra ; Java, called Zaba ; Sumbawa, named Zibala ; and the various Spice Islands in the Banda Sea, which appear to be represented under the names of Maniole, Barusae, Sindae, Sabadibae and Labadii ; whereas Satiroru may refer to the north-western parts of New Gruinea. It will be noticed that in this map, Sumatra, being confounded with Ceylon, is removed, together with the adjoining Eastern Islands, from its position near the Malay Peninsula. We conclude from the position of most of these islands that all these places, although evidently visited, either by Phoenician, Malay or Arabian sailors, were set down by guess on Ptolemy's map of the world, from accounts more or less trustworthy received at second hand. Otherwise, why should we find Java and Sumatra placed in the northern hemisphere and in the longitude of Ceylon ; New Guinea, or its north-western extremity, where the south-west coast of Borneo should be ? The Spice Islands are correctly placed, as far as latitude is concerned, but they are set down too far to the west. A few more words on Ptolemy's map of the world before we dismiss this relic of a bygone age. It is strange how its configuration, in that portion of it which occupies us just now, follows the outlines of lands represented in the latest surveys as having been above the sea level during a period when man was in existence, and who shall say to what extent those archaic representations may not have been correct at one time ? It is only fair, therefore, to point out that excuses— not to say reasons— were not wanting to account for Ptolemy's discrepancies. As an instance of the firm belief in the soundness of his views and in the correctness of his geographical representations, the following few remarks from a man of rare talent— Galvano, the founder of historical geography— may be quoted. Writing towards the end of the first half of the The Discovery of Australia. 19 16th century, Galvano says* : — " In India also, and in the land of Malabar, although now there be great store of people, yet many writers affirme that it was once a maine sea into the foot of the mountaines ; and that the Cape of Comarim and the Island of Zeilan were all one thing. As also that the Island of Samatra did ioine with the land of Malacca by the flats of Caypassia ; and not far fro thence there stands now a little island, which feu yeeres past was part of the firme land that is ouer against it. " Furthermore, it is to be seene how Ptolemy in his tables doth set the land of Malacca to the south of the line in three or fower degrees of latitude, whereas now it is at the point thereof, being called Jentana, in one degree on the north side, as appeereth in the Straight of Cineapura, where daily they doe passe through unto the coast of Sian and China, where the Island of Aynan standeth, which also they say did ioine hard to the land of China : and Ptolemy placeth it on the north side far from the line, standing now aboue 20 degrees from it towards the north, as Asia and Europe now stand. " Well it may be that in time past the land of Malacca and China did end beyond the line on the south side, as Ptolemy doth set them foorth : because it might ioine with the point of the land called Jentana, with the Islands of Bintan, Banca, and Salitres being many that waies, and the land might be all slime and oaze ; and so ye point of China might ioine with the Islands of Lugones, Borneos, Lequeos, Mindanaos, and others which stand in this parallele ; they also as yet hauing in opinion that the Island of Samatra did ioine with Java by the channel of Sunda, and the Islands of Bali, Anjane, Sambana, Solor, Hogaleas, Maulua, Vintara, Rosalaguin, and others that be in this parallele and altitude, did all ioine with Jaua (and form one land) ; and so they seeme outwardly to those that descrie them. For at this day the islands stand so neere the one to the other, that they seeme all but one firme land ; and whosoever passeth betweene some of them may touch with the hand the boughs of the trees on the one and on the other side also. And to come neerer to the matter, it is not long since that in the east the Islands of Banda were diuers of them overflowen and drowned by the sea.t And so likewise in China about nine score miles of firme ground is now become a lake, as it is reported. Which is not to be thought maruellous ; considering that which Ptolemy and others haue written in such cases, which here I omit, to return to my purpose." * "Galvano's Discoveries of the World," printed for the Hakluyt Society, p. 26 et seg. t The connection of these islands was well illustrated the other other day when the volcanic disturbances in Sanghir were found to affeot the volcanos of Borneo and Scelebes. 20 The Discovery op Australia. CHAPTER V. Early Manuscript Maps of the First Period of the Middle Ages. regions in particular. HERE are no maps of the world extant of the first centuries of our era, so says Santarem.* Those of the first period of the middle ages are exceedingly scarce. We shall give a few of these, because there may be, in some of them, preserved by tradition, or copied from earlier prototypes, certain features and nomencla- ture that, with the help of fresh data, will form, at the least, the disjecta membra of a chain of evidence that may throw additional light on ancient geography generally, and on the geography of Australasian No. 1 is a Mappamuudi given in Jomard's collection from the library of Copenhagen. It bears no date. The south is placed at the top as indicated by the lettering. In the northern hemisphere, which is placed below, we notice Asia, Europa and Affrica. Africa is set down according to the Homeric and Strabonean geography which limits its extent to the northern hemisphere. The Australian regions bear the name Synti bygd, which we are unable to explain. The circumfluent ocean surrounds the hemisphere represented, which is cut in two by the torrid zone, the two habitable temperate zones being bounded north and south by their respective glacial zones. A band cutting the equinoctial at the correct angle answers to the plane of the celestial ecliptic. It is a pity that the information it affords is so limited, but, such as it is, it is worth noting. No. 2 is a Mappamundi given in Santarem's and Jomard's collections ; it is from the Royal Library of Turin, where it is to be seen in a manuscript of the Apocalypse written in the 8th century. In it the east is at the top, where Adam and Eve form The initial T of this Chapter is adapted from Ptolemy's geography. • Essai sur I'Histoire de la Coemographie et de la Cartographie du Moyen-Age, 1849. The Discovert of Australia. 21 a conspicuous feature in the Asiatic landscape there represented by various mountains and rivers. Asia, Europe and Africa are represented as separated from each other by expanses of sea drawn at right angles ; except where a connection between Asia and Africa is left at the head waters of the Blue Nile and the south-eastern extremity of the Red Sea. To the north-west of this isthmus — our modern isthmus of Suez — the White and Blue Nile, in a strangely overlapping way which- reminds one of a flying pennant, flow into the Mediterranean opposite an island without name, intended, no doubt, for Crete or Cyprus. The narrow isthmus of Suez, instead of being laved on the north side by the Mediterranean, is confined on that side by a spur of the mountains of the moon and the source of the Blue Nile indicated by a lake, which must be meant for Lake Tzana, 22 The Discovery of Australia. otherwise called Dembea. On the side of the Red Sea the waters represented are those of the Gulf of Aden at the south entrance to the Red Sea ; Mushkah Bay and the promontory that juts out to the north of the islands of that name being clearly set down close to the words Mare rubrum on the map. Away to the west another lake— either the Albert Nyanza or the Yietoria Nyanza— indicate the source of the White Nile. The Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean are indicated, but bear no names. Of the two islands in the extreme east, i.e., at the top of the map, one bears the name of Crisa and is either meant for the Golden Chersonesus or Sumatra ; the other island may be intended for Java. We come now to a part of the map that has a distinct and decided interest for Australians. To the south of Africa and Asia, and separated by the Indian Ocean, a fourth part of the world is represented beyond the Equator. This fourth part of the world bears the following Latin legend written right across it : — Extra tres aut partes orbis quarta pars trans oceanum interior est qui solis ardore incognita nobis est cuius finibus Antipodes fabalatore inhabitare pduneur. Besides these three parts of the world there is a fourth part beyond the interior ocean (Indian Ocean, supposed by some to be a Mediterranean ocean, hence the term interior ocean), which on account of the heat of the sun is unknown to us, and where may live the fabulous antipodeans. This, then, is the origin of the terra Australis incognita ; at least, it is, so far, the first representation we have of it on a map. Nor can we argue that because it is roughly set down, it was not known, because Asia, Europe, and Africa are set down in the same way. The geometrical arrangement of the Mappamundi points to an archaic origin, preserved in later, and especially Arabian, maps. Other features of this venerable specimen of cartography can be traced to an early period ; we have seen, for instance, reference made to a southern continent* 350 years before our era. The immediate origin, however, of the Latin legend quoted above may be attributed to Isidore of Seville. Speaking of Mela and Isidore de Seville with reference to the Alter orbis and Antichthone, Santarem says (T.I., page 22) of Isidore de Seville, who lived in the 8th century, i.e., just before the Mappamundi we refer to was drawn : — " II admet aussi lAntichthone, en soutenant qu' il y a une quatri^me partie du monde, au-delk de I'ocean interieur, c'est-k-dire au midi, qui en raison de I'ardeur du soleil, est inconnue, et dans I'extremit^ de laquelle on pretend que les Antipodes fabuleux font leur demeure." As another proof of the antiquity of the origin of this Mappamundi we cannot do better than call the critic's attention to those quaint figures dispensing wind and rain from sea shells and inflated skins in the atmospheric regions which correspond with * Amie, p. 6. Silenus. The Discovery of Australia. 23 the realm of Im or Mermer of the Shumiro- Accadian records. These figures represent Boreas, Euros, Notos and Zephuros of the early Greek period, as far as then- respective positions are concerned. We shall see the idea perpetuated in later documents, the rain, however, being left out. No. 3 is a Mappamundi of the 9th century fiom El Istahkri, the Arabian geographer. In it the circumfluent ocean is represented, and it is in communication with the Indian Sea. The coastal lines are drawn with rule and compass, a method which may be termed a decorative one, and often used by the Arabs. The south is at the top. At this period the geographical knowledge of the Arabs must have been far superior to what this miserable specimen of cartography would lead us to believe, for they had, at the time, passed the Straits of Malacca, and traded regularly between Omaun, on the Persian Gulf, and China. All the trade of China and India was in their hands, whilst the nation that possesses most of it nowadays was defending her coasts and ports against Danish pirates, and King Alfred, in consequence, was com- manding boats and long ships to be built throughout the kingdom. No. 4 is a Mappamundi, the original of which covers two pages of the Latin manuscript No. 8878 in the French National Library, Paris. The manuscript was executed towards the middle of the 11th century in the Monastery of St. Sever in Gascony, under the guidance of LabbS Gregoire, who administered the establish- ment from 1028 to 1072. The accompanying sketch is a fac-simile of an abridged 24 The Discovert of Australia. and reduced copy of the original taken from the " Bulletin de la Society de Geographie Commerciale de Bordeaux," No. 19, Oct. 3, 1892. As in the Mappamundi No. 2, the east is placed at the top, where Adam and Eve, here also, hold a conspicuous position. To the south of India we notice a large island, /. Tapaprone, Indie — the Taprobana of the ancients. Whether it represents Ceylon or Sumatra is difficult to say. There are three other islands in the same ocean, Scolera, Crise, and Argire. .According to the internal evidence of later maps, but as far only as nomenclature is concerned, Scolera (the Scoyra of the Frankfort gores) is meant for Socotra, and Crise for the Malay Peninsula. According, however, to the position of these two islands and of Argire, two of them, at least, may have been intended originally, i.e., in the prototype, for Sumatra and Java ; whereas Crise represented probably the Malay Peninsula. In the original document, near the island Argire, there is a legend that has been omitted on the Mappamundi of the Bordeaux Bulletin. This legend, however, has been given by the author of the description ; we translate it as follows : " This country is near India and the island Taprobane ; it is also near the islands Argire and Crise, where quantities of gold and silver are collected. There are in these parts elephants and dragons, spices and aromatics, precious stones. Monsters prevent men from approaching." It is well to note this legend and fix its origin thus far, as we shall find it handed down and often repeated with slight variation on maps and in descriptions of a later period The Discovery of Australia. 25 To the south of Africa and Asia, the fourth part of the world is set down with a little less importance than in Mappamundi No. 2. The Latin legend, also, is abridged, but this may not be so on the original, for the author of the French description which accompanies the reduced copy of the map from which we have taken ours, wisely acknowledges the unwise act of leaving out a part of the nomenclature ; in his words " pour ^viter la confusion du dessin, nous ne donnous que quelques-uns des noms inscrits sur la carte, nos lecteurs pouvant se reporter k I'original pour les details qui les interesseraient plus particuliSrement, p. 505, lin. 20." The circumfluent ocean surrounds the elliptical form of the hemisphere represented. 26 The Discovert of Australia. CHAPTER VI- A.D. 1395. Marco Polo— Java Minor and Java Major— 5 Ttpes of Maps with Marco Polo's Nomenclature, Mandeville — Odoric db Pordenone. N 1295, after an absence of many years, Marco Polo, the great Venetian traveller, returned to Venice. He had travelled more extensively in the East and had penetrated further than any other European. Since the days of Alexander the Great, no traveller had brought back from Asia such a store of information of every kind. On his way back, and in the vicinity of the straits of Malacca, the fleet that Marco Polo was with was compelled to wait for the favourable monsoon. Previous to this stay he had sojourned for some time on the coast of Cochin- *— — ' China. Meanwhile, he gathered information concerning the islands that lay toward the south. His chief informers, the Arabs, or Moors, as they were called, used to give the generic term iaoas to all the islands in those regions. The terms Java Major and Java Minor occur frequently in Marco Polo's descriptions, and judging from the con- fusion which reigns supreme in subsequent descriptions and maps wherever these names appear, it would seem that Marco Polo's ideas on the subject were of a very mixed nature. Such was not the case. At a later period Nicolo de' Conti was also in the same localities, and in describing them he also mentions Java Major and Java Minor ; his Java Minor, however, does not apply to the same island as Marco Polo's. The confusion we have referred to was brought about through the insufficiency of knowledge of subsequent writers, some having read Marco Polo's descriptions and not Nicolo de' Conti's, whilst other writers had done the reverse. Mistakes of the kind will arise also when persons consider a subject from their point of view, instead of considering it from the point of view of the person who introduces the subject. The Discovert of Australia. 27 Marco Polo considered our modern Java and Australia as one — the south coast of Java being unknown — and called it Java Major. He also gave this generic name of Java to Sumatra ; and to distinguish it from the larger one, he called it Java Minor. We must bear this fact in mind, because many errors have occurred through mistaking Polo's Java Minor [Sumatra) for Java Major {Australia and Java). For superficial inquirers the mistake was an easy one to make, as Java Minor seems to be the more suitable term for the lesser island ; but then, as we have said, Marco Polo connected, in his mind, Java with Australia, describing it as the largest island in the world. Although some time elapsed, after the return of Marco Polo, before the various manuscript editions of his travels appeared, the news of his voyages spread wide and far. He was interviewed by the learned men of the day, and the field of geographical knowledge was widened in consequence. We do not know whether Marco Polo brought back from the East any maps of the countries he visited ; but, as an example of Marco Polo's descriptions, we give the following, which not only refers to our subject, but is of the greatest importance in connection with it, as illustrating what enormous mistakes were possible when no degrees of latitude or longitude were given. Owing to the ^ox^ Java being used instead of Chiampa,'^ as a point of departure, a whole set of maps were constructed, in which the islands Marco Polo describes were set down in erroneous positions. Marco Polo's description, which caused these mistakes, runs thus : " When you leave Java and steer a course between south and south-west seven hundred miles, you fall in with two islands, the larger of which is named Sondur and the other Kondur. Both being uninhabited, it is unnecessary to say more respecting them. Having run the distance of fifty miles from these islands, in a south-easterly direction, you reach an extensive and rich province that forms a part of the main land, and is named Lochac. Its inhabitants are idolaters. They have a language peculiar to themselves, and are governed by their own king, who pays no tribute to any other, the situation of the country being such as to protect it from any hostile attack. Were it assailable, the Grand Khan would not have delayed to bring it under his dominion. "In this country sappan or brazil wood is produced in large quantities. Gold is abundant to a degree scarcely credible ; elephants are found there ; and the objects of the chase, either with dogs or birds, are in plenty. From hence are exported all those porcelain shells, which, being carried to other countries, are there circulated for * R. H. Major, in his biography of Prince Henry the Navigator, p. 307, says : "Now, although all the manuscripts and texts of Marco Polo read ' when you leave Java,' Marsden has shown that the point of departure should really be Chiampa, a name in old times applied by Western Asiatics to a kingdom which embraced the whole coast between Tongking and Cambodia, including all that is now called Cochin China." 28 The Discovert of Australia. money, as has been already noticed. Here they cultivate a species of fruit called berchi, in size about that of a lemon, and having a delicious flavour. Besides these circumstances there is nothing further that requires mention, unless it be that the country is wild and mountainous, and is little frequented by strangers, whose visits the king discourages, in order that his treasure and other secret matters of his realm may be as little known to the rest of the world as possible. " Departing from Lochac and keeping a southerly course for five hundred miles, you reach an island named Pentam, the coast of which is wild and uncultivated, but the woods abound with sweet scented trees. Between the province of Lochac and this island of Pentam, the sea, for the space of sixty miles, is not more than four fathoms in depth, which obliges those who navigate it to lift the rudders of their ships, in order that they may not touch the bottom. After sailing these sixty miles in a south-easterly direction, and then proceeding thirty miles further, you arrive at an island, in itself a kingdom, named Malaiur, which is likewise the name of its city. The people are governed by a king, and have their own peculiar language. The town is large and well built. A considerable trade is there carried on in spices and drugs, with which the place abounds. Nothing else that requires notice presents itself. Proceeding onwards from thence, we shall now speak of Java Minor." With Marsden's rectification — see note page 27 — it is easy to follow Marco Polo's route on the map ; it extends from the coast of Cochin China to the Pulo Condore islands, thence to the coast of Cambodia.* From the coast of Cambodia the next place mentioned is the island of Pentam, which has been identified, by good authority, as Bintang, near Singapore ; then the island, in itself a kingdom, of the name of Malaiur can be no other country than the Malay Peninsula. Following the itinerary, he afterwards describes Sumatra under the name of Java Minor. The maps that began to appear after Marco Polo's and Nicolo de' Conti's return, and which bear their nomenclature, are of five different types. If we consider them in chronological order, there is : 1st, shortly after M. Polo's return, but prior to Nicolo de' Conti's, the primitive type ; in it the circum- fluent ocean is set down, and the southern portion of Africa, from the equator to the Cape of Good Hope, is bent round, so as to almost join the Malay Peninsula, like in the Arabian maps. There is no mention of the islands Java Major, Java Minor, Pentan, Condur, &c., which form such a conspicuous feature in later maps. This class of map is best represented by the Mappamundi of Marino Sanuto, 1321. nf p* AJ^araden shows from the circumstances that it is highly probable that Lochao is Intended for some part of the country Vh^r^^fkl^ capital of which was named Loech, according to the authority of Gaspar de Cruz, who visited it during the ^olT ?L ±»«"'f'^^fV"^ °/ ^v.'^'f^^V ?T.^"'">f' ^°1- "^^ P- 169- The country of Cambod a, moreover, produce! the gold, the spices, and the elephants which Marco Polo attributes to Lochac. The Discovery of Australia. 29 In the 2nd type, of which only one specimen exists — the famous Fra-Mauro Mappamundi — the circumfluent ocean is still retained, and, in consequence, the islands of the Indian and Chinese se^s lack space. 'Nevertheless, Java Major, Java Minor, Pentan, &c., are represented. The date, 1457-59, allows for the introduction of information derived from Nicolo de' Conti's writings. In the 3rd type a decided progress is apparent. The circumfluent ocean is rejected. Africa and Asia stretch beyond the equator, the Southern Sea is studded with islands named after Marco Polo's descriptions, such as : Java Major, Java Minor, Condur, Sondur, Pentan, Neucuram, Angania, &c. This type, on which no Australian continent appears, is represented by what may be termed the Behaimean and Schonerean maps — 1477-1535, and even to 1570. The 4th type is of a mysterious kind ; it shows signs of an early beginning, yet contains some of the latest features, features, indeed, that are still present on our modern maps and belong to the Australian regions. It appears to be more independent and less connected with the other three types than those types are relatively to each other. On maps of this type the Australian continent is called Java Major, according to the correct interpretation of Marco Polo's writings. This type of map is represented by the Dauphin chart, circa 1530. The 5th type is a fantastic one, we were going to say altogether fantastic ; it has, however, some features of actuality about it. It bears the nomenclature of Marco Polo, but the term Java Major no longer refers to Australia, which is called Terra Australis. The real Java is termed Java Major. Java Minor, Pentan, and other misplaced islands are thrown here and there at random. The Austral regions called Terra Australis envelope the South Pole and extend in the correct longitude sufiiciently North to warrant the supposition of a knowledge of the Australian continent. A strait between New Guinea and the Terra Australis is another feature of this type. It is represented by the fine specimens of cartography of Ortelius (1570) and Mercator (1569-1587). It will be seen that the influence of Marco Polo's writings was very great, and that their effect on the cartography of the Australasian regions lasted for nearly three hundred years ; but, during this period, other travellers brought their quota of information to bear on the improvements and consequent modifications that were wrought in the maps we have alluded to. There was Odoric of Pordenone and Mandeville, the mendacious Mandeville, as he has been called. Concerning him, we notice in B. Quaritch's catalogue, 1891, No. iii. p. 39, the following : — " The latest theory developed from a study of Sir John Mandeville's travels, and supported by Sir Henry Yule, Mr. E. B. Nicholson, 30 The Discovert op Australia. and others, is destructive of the interesting personality of the Knight of St. Albans. Just as Easpe compiled the adventures of Munchhausen, so a certain Canon of Bruges is considered to have concocted these wonderful travels and invented the traveller. It is, however, at least probable that he met a real Englishman whose career suggested the work." Whoever the traveller may have been, he is quoted as an authority under the name oi Johan de Mandevilla on Martin Behaim's Globe, 1492. Colonel H. Yule's verdict was that Mandeville's account of his voyages was mostly inspired, not to say plagiarised, from Odoric de Pordenone's descriptions. In those parts which concern our subject the plagiary is evident. Odoric of Pordenone. After Marco Polo, Odoric of Pordenone was certainly one of the most renowned travellers in his days ; he, also, like the great Venetian traveller, visited far Cathay, following somewhat the itinerary of his predecessor, reaching, however, nearer to Aus- tralia than Marco Polo ever did, for whereas the latter described the> Australasian regions only from hearsay, the Franciscan Monk Odoric actually visited Java and some of the islands of the eastern Archipelago. He started on his wanderings some time between 1316 and 1318, and returned to Italy in the beginning of the year 1330, where he died the following year from the hardships he had met with during his ten or twelve years' travels. Numerous manuscripts of the blessed Odoric's narrative spread rapidly abroad during the fourteenth century, and his geographical descriptions had some influence on the cartography of the period. These manuscripts were derived from a copy dictated by the dying man, and written by a friar of less literary attainments than Odoric ; hence, no doubt, the obscurity of many passages. Besides these obscure passages, there appears to have crept into the text of some of these manuscripts several interpolations, especially in those parts of the narrative that relate to the Australasian regions. Yule says ..." The real difficulties of Odoric's story are the accounts of the Islands of Nicoverra and Dondin "... &c. We shall see with the help of comparative cartography whether these difficulties may be overcome, or explained to a certain extent. The Discovert op Australia. 31 Odoric's course of peregrinations may be rapidly sketched thus : Constantinople, Trebizond, Erzerum, Tabriz, Soltania, Kashan, Yezd, Persepolis, Shiraz, Bagdad, Persian Gulf, Hormuz, where he embarks for Tana in Salsette, Malabar, Pandarani, Cranganor, Kulam, Ceylon ; the shrine of St. Thomas at Mailapdor, Sumatra, Java, and some other islands thereabouts, probably southern or eastern Borneo, Champa, and Canton. He returns overland to Venice, We give here Odoric's account of the regions south of the equator from Yule's excellent and now scarce work " Cathay and the way Thither," published by the Hakluyt Society. — Vol. i., p. 87. "21. The Friar Speaketh of the excellent Island called Java. "In the neighbourhood of that realm is a great island, Java by name, which hath a compass of a good three thousand miles. And the king of it hath subject to himself seven crowned kings. Now this island is populous exceedingly, and is the second best of all islands that exist. For in it grow camphor, cubebs, cardamons, nutmegs, and many other precious spices. It hath also very great stores of all victuals save wine. "The king of this island hath a palace which is truly marvellous. For it is very great, and hath very great staircases, broad and lofty, and the steps thereof are of gold and silver alternately. Likewise the pavement of the palace hath one tile of gold and the other of silver, and the wall of the same is on the inside plated all over with plate of gold, on which are sculptured knights all of gold, which have great golden circles round their heads, such as we give in these parts to the figures of saints. And these circles are all beset with precious stones. Moreover, the ceiling is all of pure gold, and to speak briefly, this palace is richer and finer than any existing at this day in the world. "Now the Great Khan of Cathay many a time engaged in war with this king ; but this king always vanquished and got the better of him. And many other things there be which I write not. "22. Of the land called Thalamasin, and of the trees that give flour, and other marvels. "Near to this country is another which is called Panten, but others call it Thalamastn, the king whereof hath many islands under him. Here be found trees that produce flour, and some that produce honey, others that produce wine, and others a poison the most deadly that existeth in the world. For there is no antidote to it known except one ; and that is that if any one hath imbibed that poison he 32 The Discovert of Australia. shall take of stercus humanum and dilute it with water, and of this potion shall he drink, and so shall he be absolutely quit of the poison. [And the men of this country being nearly all rovers, when they go to battle they carry every man a cane in the hand about a fathom in length, and put into one end of it an iron bodkin poisoned with this poison, and when they blow into the cane, the bodkin flieth and striketh whom they list, and those who are thus stricken incontinently die.]* "But, as for the trees that produce flour, 'tis after this fashion. These are thick, but not of any great height ; they are cut into with an axe round about the foot of the stem, so that a certain liquor flows from them resembling size. N"ow this is put into bags made of leaves, and put for flfteen days in the sun ; and after that space of time a flour is found to have formed from the liquor. This they steep for two days in seawater, and then wash it with fresh water. And the result is the best paste in the world, from which they make whatever they choose, cakes of sorts and excellent bread, of which I, Friar Odoric, have eaten ; for all these things have I seen with mine own eyes. And this kind of bread is white outside, but inside it is somewhat blackish. "By the coast of this country towards the south is the sea called the Dead Sea, the water whereof runneth ever towards the south, and if any one falleth into that water he is never found more. And if the shipmen go but a little way from the shore they are carried rapidly downwards and never return again. And no one knoweth whither they are carried, and many have thus passed away, and it hath never been known what became of them.t " In this country, also, there be canes or reeds like great trees, and full sixty paces in length. There be also canes of another kind which are called Cassan, and these always grow along the ground like what we call dog's grass, and at each of their knots they send out roots, and in such wise extend themselves for a good mile in length. And in these canes are found certain stones which be such that if any man wear one of them upon his person he can never be hurt or wounded by iron in any shape, and so for the most part the men of that country do wear such stones upon them. And when their boys are still young they take them and make a little cut in the arm and insert one of these stones, to be a safeguard against any wound by steel. And the little wound thus made in the boy's arm is speedily healed by applying to it the powder of a certain fish. the truth, a meaning which the word seems to have in sea phraseology. leuuerea laLnom, as nearest « X '^™"l/u'' I. °^- ^^^'"'^ ^P *'"'' *''^ "^*'^^' believed that whoever should proceed beyond the Straits of V.M tn tV,. South, would be hurried away by strong currents, so as never to return. i'""-«'-i oeyona tne otraits of Uali to the The Discovery of Australia. 33 "And thus, through the great virtue of those stones, the men who wear them become potent in battle and great corsairs at sea. But those who from being shipmen on that sea have suffered at their hands, have found out a remedy for the mischief For they carry as weapons of offence sharp stakes of very hard wood, and arrows likewise that have no iron on the points ; and as those corsairs are but poorly harnessed, the shipmen are able to wound and pierce them through with these wooden weapons, and by this device they succeed in defending themselves most manfully. "Of these canes called Cassan they make sails for' their ships, dishes, houses, and a vast number of other things of the greatest utility to them. And many other matters there be in that country which it would cause great astonishment to read or hear tell of; wherefore I am not careful to write them at present." After the above description concerning the bamboo and rattan there follows a description of three islands which has puzzled many a critic, principally because it does not appear to refer to any islands in the vicinity of Java. These three islands bear the names of Nicoverra or Nicoveran, Sillan, and Dondin. We are inclined to believe that the reference made to these islands has been interpolated from Marco Polo's work. Marco Polo describes Nicoveran (Nicobar Island) and Sillan (Ceylon). Dondin or Dondyn may refer to Candin or Candyn. If we turn to Martin Behaim's globe, 1492, or to any of the globes or maps which bear Marco Polo's nomenclature, we shall find all the islands in question set down in the vicinity of Java, which appears to solve the mystery. 34 The Discovery of Australia. CHAPTER VII. Prince Henry the Navigator. UT the influence that these and other travellers brought to bear, after all, was but of slight importance as regards the discovery of the Australasian regions. Of quite another value was the influence of the great figure we must now introduce in pursuance of the chronological order of our scheme, an order which we have endeavoured to follow as closely as the subject would allow. This great figure — Prince Henry the Navigator — we cannot do better than introduce in the very words of the late R. H. Major, his able biographer. In the first chapter of "Prince Henry the Navigator," Major says : — " The mystery which since creation had hung over the Atlantic, and hidden from man's knowledge one-half of the surface of the globe, had reserved a field of noble enterprise for Prince Henry the Navigator. Until his day the pathways of the human race had been the mountain, the river, and the plain, the strait, the lake, and inland sea ; but he it was who first conceived the thought of opening a road through the unexplored ocean, a road replete with danger but abundant in promise." And again, p. ix. preface : — " The glory of Prince Henry consists in the conception and persistent prosecu- tion of a great idea, and in what followed therefrom. . . . That glory is not a matter of fancy or bombast, but a mighty and momentous reality, a reality to which the Anglo-Saxon race, at least, have no excuse for indifference. " The coasts of Africa visited ; the Cape of Good Hope rounded; the New World disclosed ; the seaway to India, the Moluccas, and China laid open ; the Globe circum- navigated, and Australia discovered ; within one centtiry of continuous and connected exploration. Such . . . were the stupendous results of a great thought, and of indomitable perseverance in spite of twelve years of costly failure and disheartening ridicule. . . . To be duly appreciated, this comprehensive thought must be viewed in relation to the period in which it was conceived. ' The last of the dark With the initial B of this Chapter is given a statue of Prince Henry the Navigator over the side gate of the monastery at Belem, from R. H. Major's "Life of Prince Henry the Navigator." The Discovery of Australia. 35 ages,' the fifteenth century has been rightly named, but the light which displaced its obscurity had not yet begun to dawn when Prince Henry, with prophetic instinct, traced mentally a pathway to India by an anticipated Cape of Good Hope. No printing-press as yet gave forth to the world the accumulated wisdom and experience of the past. The compass, though known and in use, had not yet emboldened men to leave the shore and put out with confidence into the open sea ; no sea-chart existed to guide the. mariner along those perilous African coasts ; no lighthouse reared its friendly head to warn or welcome him- on his homeward track. The scientific and practical appliances which were to render possible the discovery of half a world had yet to be developed. But, with such objects in view, the Prince collected the information supplied by ancient geographers, unwearingly devoted himself to the study of mathematics, navigation, and cartography, and freely invited, with princely liberality of reward, the co-operation of the boldest and most skilful navigators of every country." Not only did Prince Henry collect the information supplied by ancient geographers, but also all the most recent information obtainable in his days, for we cannot inquire into the geography of his times without finding him always the first and best informed in matters connected with the latest discoveries made, or else using all his efforts to obtain such information. In 1428 Prince Henry's brother, Dom Pedro, after many years of travel, returned to Portugal On his journey home the Prince went to Venice,* and there received from the Republic, in compliment to him as a traveller and a learned royal Prince, the priceless gift of a copy of the travels of Marco Polo, which had been preserved by the Venetians in their treasury as a work of great value, together with a map which had been supposed to have been either an original or the copy of one by the hand of the same illustrious explorer. . . . On his return Dom Pedro devoted himself like his brother Prince Henry to scientific studies, among which the art of cartography took a leading place, and there is little doubt that to the genius and attainments of his elder brother Dom Pedro, Prince Henry owed much of encouragement and enlightenment in his pursuit of geographical investigation. The Marco Polo M.S. and the map brought from Venice would doubtless act as a potent stimulus to these investigations. Galvanot refers to the Venetian map in these terms : — " In the yeere 1428 it is written that Don Peter (Dom Pedro), the King of Portugal's eldest sonne, was a great traveller. He went into England, Prance, Almaine, and from thence into the Holy Land, and to other places, and came home by Italie, taking Rome and Venice in his way : from whence he brought a map of the world, which had all the * R. H. Major, "Prince Henry the Navigator," p. 51. t Galvano, " Discoveries of the World," p. 66. 36 The Discovert of Australia. parts of the world and earth described. The Streight of Magelan was called in it The Dragon's taile : The Cape of Bona Speranga, the forefront of Afrike (and so foorth of other places), by which map Don Henry, the King's third sonne,* was much helped and furthered in his discoueries." And Galvano adds, page 67 :— " It was tolde me by Francis de Sosa Tauares that in the yeere 1528 Don Fernando, the King's sonne and heire, did shew him a map, which was found in the studie of Alcobaza, which had been made 120 yeeres before, which map did set foorth all the nauigation of the East Indies with the Cape of Bona Speranga, according as our later maps have described it. Whereby it appeereth that in ancient time there was as much or more diseouered than now there is. Notwithstanding all the trauaile, paines, and expences in this action of Don Henry, yet he was neuer wearie of his purposed discouveries." It is, no doubt, the one and same map which is referred to as having been brought back in 1428 by Dom Pedro, and seen in 1528 by Francisco de Souza Tavarez, for Tavarez says it was made 120 years before, which would allow for its being 20 years old when presented to Dom Pedro by the Venetians. It was, therefore, apparently a copy from an Italian prototype. Unfortunately this map has disappeared. Major remarks that " it is a notable fact, and one that greatly redounds to the honour of Italy^ that the three Powers, which at this day possess almost all America, owe their first discoveries to the Italians : Spain to Columbus, a Genoese ; England, the Cabots, Venetians ; and France, to Verazzano, a Florentine ; a circumstance which sufficiently proves that in those times no nation was equal to the Italians in point of maritime knowledge and extensive experience in navigation." The same may be said as regards the earliest information in connection with the east and the Australasian regions— information that was only to be obtained from such writers as Marco Polo, the Venetian, Odoric of Pordenone, Nicolo de' Conti, the Venetian, Ludovico Barthema, the Bolognese, Giovanni da Empoli, the Floren- tine, Andrea Corsali, the Florentine, Hieronimo da San Stephano, the Genoese, &;c , &c. * Don Henry was King JoSo's 5th son ; his two first sons, Branca and Alfonso, died in infancy. See " Prince Henrv the Navigator," p. 20. j j The Discovery of Australia. 37 CHAPTER VIII. A.D. 14:44. NicoLO de' Conti. N 1444 Nicole de' Conti, the emulator of Marco Polo, returned to Italy after an absence of 25 years. During his peregrina- tions per tutte P Indie orientali, he had, in order to save his life, to renounce his faith, and Ramusio* tells us : — Bisognb ck'egli andasse al sommo Pontefice per farsi assoluere, che allhora era in Firenze & si chiamaua Papa Eugenia IIII, che fu dell 'anno 1444, il qual dopo, la benedittione, gli dette per penitenza, che con ogni verita douesse narrar tutta la sua peregrinatione ad un valent huomo suo segretario detto Messer Poggio Fiorentino, il quale la scrisse con diligenza in lingua latino. Copies of the narrative of his voyages — narrative that Pope Eugene IV. ordered him, as a penance, to dictate to his secretary, Messer Poggio — became very scarce about a hundred years later, for Ramusio could not find a single copy, non solamente nella Citta di Venetia, ma in molte altre d Italia. The patriotic Ramusio, wishing to make known to the world the exploits of his worthy fellow citizen, was compelled, not finding a single copy of his voyages in any town of Italy, to have recourse to a Portuguese translation, printed in Lisbon, which he was fortunate enough to hear of Thus, the Portuguese were in possession of an account of the voyages of the Venetian traveller, the memory of which voyages was all that was left in the minds of Italians of a generation or two later ; and Ramusio informs us how this came to pass in these terms : — Questa scrittura dopo molti anni (the manuscript account) peruenne a notitia del Serenissimo Don Emanuel primo di quest name Re di Portogallo, & fu del 1^00, in questo modo : che sapendosi da ogniuno che sua Maestct non pensaua mai ad altro, se non come potesse far penetrare le sue carauelle per tutte c Indie Orientali, le fu fatto intendere, * Ramusio, Navigationi et viaggi, fol. 338, C. 38 The Discovert of Australia. che questo Viaggio di Nicolo di Conti daria gran luce, & cognitione a i suoi Capitani & Pilotti, & pero di suo ordine fu tradotto di lingua latina nella Portoguese, per un Valentino Fernandes, il quale nel suo proemio dedicate d sua Maesta, tra caltre parole dice queste. lo mi son mosso a tradur questo Viaggio di Nicolo Venetiano, accio che si legga appresso di quello di Marco Polo, cognoscendo ' I grandissimo seruitio che ne resultera a Vostra Maesta, ammonendo, & auisando li Sudditi suoi delle cose dell Pndie, cioe quelle Citta, & popoli, che sieno de Mori, et quali degli Idolatri, & delle grandi utilita & ricchezze di spetierie, gioie, oro, & a^gento, che se ne traggona, & sopra tutto per consolar la travagliata menta di Vostra Maesta, la quale manda le sue caravelle in cosi lungo & pericoloso Viaggio, conciosia cosa che in questo Viaggio di Nicolo si parta particolarmente daltre citta dell 'Indie, oltra Calicut, & Cochin, che gia al presente habbiamo Scoperte ; & appresso per aggiugnere un testimonio al Libro di Marco Polo, il qual andb al tempo di Papa Gregorio X, nelle parti orientalifra 'Ivento greco, <2f levant e, & questo Nicolo dipoi al tempo di Papa Eugenio I I II. per la parte di mezzodi penetro a quella volta, & trouo le medesime Terre descritte dal detto Marco Polo.