174 Tr ansae tio ns . — Miscellaneo us . 



leclge in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and of the part 

 which science took in giving confidence to the sailor to stretch 

 out to seek for lands afar, I may not at this time say much. 

 As an illustration, however, of what were considered diffi- 

 culties, it may be noted that all the expeditions sent out at 

 various times from Portugal to round Cape Bojador, up till the 

 year 1433, returned unsuccessful because of a reef which 

 extended six miles seaward and barred the passage. With 

 the discoveries of Columbus the whole fabric of geographical 

 conceptions was shattered, and amid the growing light of 

 scientific knowledge in Europe the fragments were recon- 

 structed into a more adequate representation of the true forms 

 of the continents and oceans. To us under the Southern 

 Cross the 25th of September, 1573, is a day of note, for on 

 that day the fearless Spaniard, Vasco Nunez de Balbao, beheld 

 from the summit of the Sierra Quarequa a boundless ocean 

 extending towards the setting sun — an ocean first ploughed by 

 the keels of the ships of Magellan many years after, and sub- 

 sequently named by Pigafetta "the Pacific." "For three 

 months and twenty days we sailed," he says, " about four 

 thousand leagues on that sea, which we call the Pacific, be- 

 cause during all the time of our navigation we did not expe- 

 rience a single storm. 



The voyage of Magellan, from a geographical point of 

 view, was the greatest event in the most remarkable period of 

 the world's history, and far surpassed all others in its effect 

 on oceanographical conceptions. 



The memorable discoveries in the thirty years from 1492 

 to 1522 doubled at a single bound the knowledge of the sur- 

 face of the earth, and added a hemisphere to the chart of the 

 world. The fiery zone of the ancients had been crossed, a 

 death-blow was dealt to Ptolemy's view that the Indian Ocean 

 was an enclosed sea ; the southern temperate zone of Aris- 

 totle and Mela had been reached. The sphericity of the 

 earth and the existence of the Antipodes were no longer 

 theories, but demonstrated facts. The impression produced 

 by these great events can be traced in men's minds in all 

 the great intellectual and moral changes which characterized 

 the transitional period known as the Renaissance, and relit 

 the torch of learning in Europe. 



The geographical work of the sixteenth century wtis con- 

 tinued, but with less ardour, during the seventeenth century. 

 The Dutch made discoveries in the " Great Ocean " of the 

 western half of Australia. Tasman, in 1642, showed that 

 Austrtilia and Tasmania were surrounded by the ocean to the 

 south ; but the west coast of New Zealand, whicli he visited, 

 was believed to be a part of the great southern continent. 



The desire for more detailed geographical knowledge seems 



