But although no documentary evidence has been brought to light, proving beyond all doubt the certain discovery of the South Land in the sixteenth century, we find on the old charts of the world various tracings indicating a knowledge of the existence of this continent, which would appear to have been derived from other than fabulous sources.
A shadowy claim to the honour of being the first discoverer of Terra Australis has been advanced on behalf of the Frenchman Gonneville, who sailed from Honfleur in 1503, on a voyage to the East Indies. He is said to have doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and being driven by stress of weather into an unknown sea, found a land inhabited by friendly people, with whom he stayed some time, being accompanied back to France by one of the king's sons who was desirous of studying the precepts of Christianity. The general belief, however, is that it was probably Madagascar whereon De Gonneville landed.
Another claim, based upon the authority of an ancient map, is put forward for the noted Portugese navigator Magalhaens, when in the service of the Emperor Charles V. of Spain; but there is little appertaining to the arguments advanced on behalf of this belief to render it credible.
In some of the old charts, dating back to the middle of the sixteenth century, a large country south of Java is portrayed, which from its position appears to be intended for the conjectural South Land. In all these maps the outlines of this TERRA INCOGNITA are so nearly identical that it is evident various hydrographers drew their inspirations from the same sources. The annexed tracing is a copy of a portion of one of the most ancient of these maps; the original was presented to the British Museum by Sir Joseph Banks in 1790. It is most carefully drawn, the coast line being elaborately filled in with names in French, and it is embellished with drawings of animals and men, being also ornamented with two shields bearing the arms of France. The map is undated, but was probably designed in the latter part of the reign of Francis L, for his son, the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II.
It has been alleged that Captain Cook was guided by these charts to the eastern shore of New Holland, and the similarity of some of the names thereon, such as COSTE DES HERBAIGES, and COSTE DANGEROUSE, to names given by him, has been pointed out. This allegation, however, will not stand criticism. Botany Bay, for instance, is about the last place that any one would select to bestow such a name on as COSTE DES HERBAIGES, which name would signify a rich and fertile spot, certainly not such a desolate place as Botany Bay was in Captain Cook's time. Captain Tench, one of the survey party sent there in 1789, writes in his journal:—"We were unanimously of the opinion that had not the nautical part of Mr. Cook's description been so accurately laid down, there would exist the utmost reason to believe that those who have described the contiguous country had never seen it. On the side of the harbour, a line of sea coast more than thirty miles long, we did not find two hundred acres which could be cultivated." Any approximation then in position between Botany Bay and the fabulous COSTE DES HERBAIGES must be considered as accidental.
The generally received opinion of this and the other charts is, that Java (JAVE) is fairly well laid down, and that Great Java stands for the supposed South Land. Plausible as this theory reads, it is, however, open to objection. If it be accepted, and the narrow strait the river GRANDE be looked upon as that portion of the Indian Ocean dividing Java from the north-west coast of Australia, any resemblance to the present known shape of our continent is very hard to trace, unless after a most distorted fashion. If, however, we make the necessary allowances for the many errors that would creep in from one transcription to another, and look upon JAVE and JAVE LA GRANDE as one continent intersected by a mediterranean sea, we have a fair, if rude, conception of the north coast of Australia. Moreover, let the reader imagine a south coast line drawn from BAYE PERDUE on the east to HAVRE DE SYLLA on the west, doing away with the conjectural east and west coast continuations south of those points; the deep inlet between JAVE and JAVE LA GRANDE standing for the Gulf of Carpentaria, a very passable outline of the whole continent is obtained. And it is more than probable that this view was originally suggested by this map, and from it sprang the belief current, even to the beginning of this century, that an open passage existed from the west coast, either into the Gulf of Carpentaria, or to the head of Spencer's Gulf. The other maps give no more information than this one, and the identity of their origin is obvious. One, however, has been found in the British Museum the features of which are different. It is a rough copy of an old map showing the north west portion of a continent to the south of "Java Major." It bears a legend in Portugese, of which the following is a translation:—"Nuca Antara was discovered in the year 1601 by Manoel Godinho Eredia, by command of the Viceroy Ayres de Soldanha." This would point to a Portugese discovery of Australia immediately preceding the Dutch one.
In Cornelius Wytfliet's "Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum," Louvain, 1598, the following passage is to be found:—
"The Australis Terra is the most southern of all lands; it is separated from New Guinea by a narrow strait; its shores are hitherto but little known, since, after one voyage and another, that route has been deserted, and seldom is the country visited unless when sailors are driven there by storms. The Australis Terra begins at two or three degrees from the equator, and is maintained by some to be of so great an extent that if it were thoroughly explored it would be regarded as a fifth part of the world."
The above is so vague and suppositious that it would scarcely be worth quoting, were it not for the singular mention of the narrow strait separating Australis Terra from New Guinea; for at this time Torres had not sailed through the straits, nor was the fact of his having done so known to the world until the end of the eighteenth century, when Dalrymple discovered his report amongst the archives of Manila, and did justice to his memory.
In 1605, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, having for his second in command Luis Vaez de Torres, sailed from Callao with two well-armed vessels and a corvette. After the discovery of several islands, they came to a land which Quiros supposed to be the continent he was in search of, and therefore named it Australia del Espiritu Santo. "At one hour past midnight," says Torres, in his account of the voyage, "the CAPITANA" (Quiros' vessel) "departed without any notice given to us, and without making any signal." This extraordinary conduct was supposed to be the result of discontent and mutiny amongst the sailors, an outbreak having already taken place which was not quelled quite so firmly as Torres advocated. After vainly waiting for many days, Torres set sail, and first ascertaining that it was only an island where they had been anchored, he made his way by the dangerous south coast of New Guinea to Manila, where he arrived in 1607.
Up to the preceding year popular knowledge concerning the South Land must be looked upon as being mixed up with much that is both doubtful and hazardous. We now, however, reach the period which may be regarded as the beginning of the authentic history of the discovery of New Holland. In 1606 the yacht DUYFHEN sailed from Bantam, and, coasting along the south-west shore of New Guinea, her commander unknowingly crossed the entrance of Torres Straits, and continued his voyage along the eastern side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, under the impression that it was part of the same country. They sailed nearly to latitude 14 degrees south, when want of provisions and other necessaries compelled them to turn back. Cape Keer-Weer (Turn Again) they named the furthest point reached by them. Their report of the country was most unfavourable. They described it as being "for the greatest part desert, but in some places inhabited by wild, cruel, black savages, by whom some of the crew were murdered, for which reason they could not learn anything of the land or waters as had been desired of them."
The name of the captain of the DUYFHEN—the Columbus of the south—has not been preserved. Ten years after this visit, in 1616, Captain Dirk Hartog, in command of the ship ENDRACHT, from Amsterdam, discovered the west coast of Australia. He left a tin plate on an island in Dirk Hartog's Roads bearing the following inscription:—
"Ao 1616, den 25sten October, is hier vangecommen het schip de ENDRACHT
van Amsterdam, den Oppercoopmen Gilles Mibais van Luyck; schipper Dirk
Hartog, van Amsterdam, den 27sten, dito t' zeijl gegaen na Bantam, den
Ondercoopman Jan Stoyn, Opperstierman Pieter Dockes, van Bil, Ao 1616."
[Translation.—On the 25th October, arrived here the ship Endraght of
Amsterdam; the first merchant, Gilles Mibais, of Luyck; Captain Dirk