It will be seen that the Spanish map claims Gilolo and the other Spice Islands, such as Ternate, Tidor, Batchian, etc., since they are set down, in the western half of the world.
This is wrong, for those islands virtually fell within the Portuguese sphere. I have purposely drawn your attention to these deceptions and distortions on this Spanish map because on the first map of Australia, which we shall consider by and by, we shall see that the Portuguese made use of similar methods which they, of course, turned to their own advantage.
Nutmegs and Cloves, from an Old Chart
For instance, they blocked the sea-way to the south of Java, and, in other ways, restricted the approach to the Spice Islands to channels over which they had control. Observe that the smaller islands of the East Indian Archipelago, from Java to Flores, are not charted, although they were well-known at the time. There must have been a reason for this, for these missing islands are precisely those which we shall find grafted on to the Australian continent (Jave-la-Grande) in the charts that we are coming to.
Observe also that the south coast of Java is not marked. The reason for this is obvious, the south coast was not known. Java, indeed, was believed to be connected with the Great Southern Continent, and was called Java Major, to distinguish it from Sumatra, which was named Java Minor.
Banda Volcano