PAPERS READ IN SECTION E 



1.— THE EARLY DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA : 



AND THE REASON FOR A " NO MAN'S LAND " ON THIS 



CONTINENT OF OURS. 



By GEO. COLLINGRIDGE. 



A FEW years ago I received a letter from my friend, the late R. H. 

 Major, who was then considered the greatest authority on all 

 questions relating to discovery, and especially discovery relating 

 to Australia. 



If you will allow me I will read that letter to you, because in 

 dealing with a subject, difficult and abstruse as the present one is, 

 this letter may serve as my excuse for the retrospective manner 

 in which I have prepared this paper. 



Corona d' Italia, 



Via Palestro 4, 

 Florence, March 28th, 1890. 

 Dear Sir, — 



Your very kind letter and accompanying number of the " Centennial 

 Magazine," sent to my address in London, have just reached me here, and 

 I beg you to accept my best thanks for them. 



I have read your article with great interest, and seeing that great 

 obscurity surrounds the actual explorations on which the early sixteenth 

 century maps of Australia are founded, minutely critical observations on 

 individual expressions occurring on them are of great interest, and, in the 

 endeavour to progress from the unknown into the known, one is never sure 

 what fresh stepping stone may not be gained sight of by means of any slight 

 glimmer of new light. 



Another interesting problem lies before you, if you care to follow it out, 

 in tracing the value of the word " Qiiabesesmcice." 



At present my own mind is fully occupied witla another subject ; but 

 in the event of your happily lighting on any fresh tracts, it would always be 

 a great pleasure to me if you would do me the favour to let me hear of them. 



Faithfully yours, 



R. H. MAJOR. 



The Unknown. — In the first part of this paper I shall show, by 

 means of retrospective glances at various maps that have appeared 

 from time to time, that this great continent of ours was discovered 

 by unknown Portuguese and Spanish navigators at a very early 

 period. 



