(ut PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 
For it aims at acquiring a knowledge of the whole history of the 
discovery of the earth by civilised man, and so has an educational 
thoroughness about it which cannot be surpassed. To know the 
coast-lines, say of South America, as they appeared to successive 
geographers, from Columbus onwards, will be to know them much 
more thoroughly than if I had received them into my mind as a 
finished product, and I will be possessed of the whole process, by 
means of which that product has been evolved. This is to watch 
the manufacture of a porcelain vase from the clay through all the 
processes of moulding, painting, and firing. The other plan is to 
look at it when it is finished and exposed in the show-room. The 
historical method links the study of the earth with the study of 
man, not only as a living entity, but also as a sentient being. 
There is no human feeling, no aim, nor aspiration that has not 
been awakened for good or for evil in the course of geographical 
discovery. The study of it reveals the plans, the antagonism, and 
the alliances of nations. 
I shall now give you an example of the use of the historical 
method, as applied to South-western New Guinea and Prince 
Frederick Hendrick Island—the cradle of Australasian discovery. 
Time will only permit me to deal with the earliest period of its 
history, that namely, in which the Portuguese, under Albuquerque, 
having taken Malacca, after an arduous investment, despatched 
three vessels in November or December, 1511, to explore the 
Eastern Archipelago, and to open up a trade with the islands. 
A native junk, commanded by a Malay named by Barros Nehoda 
Ishmael, either preceded or accompanied the other vessels in order 
to inform the islanders that Malacca was in the hands of the 
Portuguese, and that they would find a market there for their 
wares. Antonio de Abreu, in the Santa Caterina, was placed 
in command of the entire expedition, with Francisco Serrao, 
and Simao Affonso Bisagudo, in command of the two accom- 
panying vessels. There is an account of this voyage in the 
‘Discoveries of the World,” by Antonio Galvano, who was 
captain or governor of the Moluccas, from 1537 to 1540. When 
he wrote his treatise he was living in great neglect and poverty 
in a hospital in Lisbon, and the manuscript was bequeathed to his 
friend Francisco de Sousa Tavares, by whom it was published in 
1563, six years after the death of the author. Some of the infor- 
mation which it contained relative to voyages to the Moluccas 
was gathered directly from those who had taken part in them. 
This was the case, for example, with respect to the voyage of 
Alvarado, in 1537, and that of the survivors of the vessel com- 
manded by Hernio de Grijalva. Galvano, who had spent his 
days, and also his private fortune, in the service of John ITI, in 
the East, and who had refrained from amassing wealth for himself 
as seems to have been the practice of most of the Portuguese 
