Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia: / A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.

by Richard Henry Major

“As to the resemblance of the names—this seems to me to prove exactly the contrary of the conclusions which it has been attempted to draw from them. If Cook had been acquainted with the maps in question, and had wished to appropriate to himself the discoveries of another, will any one suppose him so short-sighted as to have preserved for his discoveries the very names which would have exposed his plagiarism, if ever the sources which he had consulted came to be known. The ‘dangerous coast’ was so named because there he found himself during four hours in imminent danger of shipwreck. We must suppose, then, that he exposed himself and his crew to an almost certain death in order to have a plausible excuse for applying a name similar to that which this coast had already received from the unknown and anonymous navigator who had previously discovered it. Moreover, names such as ‘Bay of Islands,’ ‘Dangerous coast,’ are well known in geography. We find a Bay of Islands in New Holland; and on the east coast of the island of Borneo there is a ‘Côte des Herbages.’”

The sound sense of this reasoning, apart from all question of honour on the part of a man of the high character of Captain Cook, would seem conclusive, yet this similarity of the names has, to the editor’s own knowledge, been remarked upon by persons of high standing and intelligence in this country, though without any intention of disparaging Captain Cook, as an evidence that this country was identical with Australia. The similarity of the expression, “Côte des Herbages,” with the name of Botany Bay, given to a corresponding part of the coast by Captain Cook, has been particularly dwelt upon, whereas it ought to be known that this bay, originally called Stingray, but afterwards Botany Bay, was not so named on account of the fertility of the soil, but from the variety of plants new to the science of botany which were discovered on a soil otherwise rather unpromising. It is plain that early navigators would assign such a designation as “Côte des Herbages” to a shore remarkable for its rich growth of grass or other vegetation, rather than from the appreciation of any curious botanical discovery. Had the similarity of the names “Rivière de beaucoup d’Isles” and “Côte dangereuse” with Cook’s “Bay of Isles” and the place “where the Endeavour struck,” names descriptive of unquestionable realities, been advanced by Dalrymple as evidence of the high probability that the country represented on the early map was New Holland, without volunteering an insinuation against the merit of his rival, we should have accepted the reasonable suggestion with deference and just acquiescence.

That New Holland was the country thus represented, became an argument supported by a variety of reasonings by more than one of our French neighbours. Mr. Coquebert Montbret, in a memoir printed in No. 81 of the Bulletin des Sciences, 1804, quotes Dalrymple’s injurious observation, and silently allows it to have its deceptive effect on the mind of the incautious reader.

The atlas now in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, which, as we have stated, is probably next in date to that made for the Dauphin, fell into the possession of Prince Talleyrand at the beginning of this century, and attracting the attention of the celebrated geographer M. Barbié du Bocage, drew from him the following notice in the Magasin Encyclopédique, douzième année, tom. iv, 1807, which, though lengthy, bears so directly upon the subject of the present work, that it is here given in full.

Extract from the notice of a geographical manuscript belonging to his Serene Highness the Prince of Benevento [better known as the Prince Talleyrand], read at a Public Session of the Institute, on the 3rd of July, 1807, by M. Barbié du Bocage.

This manuscript is an hydrographic atlas, drawn at Dieppe in 1547, by a person of the name of Nicholas Vallard, of Dieppe, representing the eastern and western coasts of the continent of New Holland. This atlas is not the only one upon which these coasts are laid down. There are two in England, which came from France, and which we have been made acquainted with by the English as well as by some Frenchmen. One of the two, which has been for a considerable time in the library of the British Museum, was drawn in 1542 by a person of the name of Jean Rotz or Roty, who had in the first instance drawn it, as he states in the dedication, for the king of France, but afterwards presented it to Henry VIII, king of England. The second is a large map on one single sheet of parchment, made for the Dauphin of France, whose arms it bears. It was formerly in the library of the earl of Oxford, where Sir Joseph Banks was acquainted with it, and thence it passed to the British Museum, where it is at present. The English pretend that none of these charts were discovered till after the death of the celebrated Captain Cook, and that they had no knowledge of them when this navigator set sail. But their prior existence in well-known libraries in England may cause this assertion to be doubted. But even if they had made use of them to indicate to their countryman the countries which he had to visit, it would not the less follow that the skill, the prudence, and the resolution with which Captain Cook conducted his operations must always secure for him the glory of having made known in detail the countries which had hitherto been but faintly indicated.

The third manuscript atlas which represents the coasts of New Holland, is that of which we have now to treat. It is a small folio volume, consisting of fifteen hydrographical charts, on vellum, which has been recently acquired by his serene highness the Prince of Benevento. This atlas, even by the account of persons who have seen those which are in England, is the most beautiful of all the works of the kind, and for this reason deserves the most particular attention. There has since been discovered in France a fourth, which is at present in the library of the Dépôt de la Guerre, which was drawn in 1555 by a person named Guillaume le Testu, a pilot, of Grasse, in Provence, for Admiral Coligny, to whom it is dedicated, and whose arms it bears.

The English geographers, MM. Dalrymple, Major Rennell, and Pinkerton; and among the French, MM. Buache, De la Rochette, Coquebert de Montbret, and others, recognize on these atlases the eastern and western coasts of New Holland. These coasts are bounded by the same latitudes as those indicated on recent maps; and if they encroach more on longitude it is because, at the time the discovery was made, there existed but small means of fixing the boundaries in that respect. The names on all the atlases which we have just quoted, are, for the most part, in Portuguese, some of them in French; that of 1542 alone, which is in England, has some of the names in bad English. We must, therefore, come to the conclusion that these atlases have been copied from Portuguese maps, and consequently that the discovery of the continent of New Holland belongs to the Portuguese. This is the opinion of MM. Dalrymple, Pinkerton, De la Rochette, and several others; and I do not believe that any good reason can be alleged in refutation of an opinion so well founded.

All these atlases call this continent “Great Java”, in contradistinction to the island of Java, which is to the north of it; yet it is very singular that no mention whatever is made of this country in the voyages of the time. As, however, I think I have detected from history the period at which it must have been made, I shall now endeavour to explain why the Portuguese have kept this discovery a secret. I shall then fix the period at which I presume it to have been made, and will shew how the knowledge of this country has been lost even by those who have discovered it.

The most ancient of the atlases which represent the coasts of New Holland, is that of Rotz or Roty, which is in England, and which bears the date of 1542. The discovery of New Holland, therefore, is anterior to the year 1542. At that period the Portuguese were masters of the Molucca Islands, which they had discovered in 1511, and where they had established themselves in 1512, and in one of which, Ternate, they had built a fort in 1522. They must have discovered New Holland after the Moluccas, and therefore this discovery must be limited to the period between the years 1512 and 1542.