ANTIPODAL SOUTHERN CONTINENT. 45l 



Desceliers and liis fellow-hydrogra pliers appear to have 

 had access to some of the pictorial charts of the Spaniards 

 or Portuguese to Avhich Lelewel alludes. An extensive 

 })ortion of their southern hemisphere is occupied by hydro- 

 graphic outlines of a continent which in some instances is 

 rejjresented as united with the Terra Australis, in others is 

 made separate from it, and to which the name Jave la 

 Grande or Java Maior is applied. Its northern outlines are 

 in part co-terrainous with those of Java, in part with those of 

 other islands of the Malayan Archipelago. This appears, 

 from the names with which that portion of the coast is 

 studded. But on closer examination one finds that the 

 entire outlines of Java, of certain Malaysian islands, and of 

 Java Major, correspond with the outlines of Central and 

 South America from the Gulf of Honduras to about 23^ S. 

 or, in some of the maps (Desceliers, 1550, Desliens, 1566) 

 to the vicinity of La Plata. In order to rectify the 

 bearing of the coast-hnes it is necessary to invert them, 

 which can be simply done by placing the chart before a 

 mirror. The inverted outlines should be compared with an 

 early map of America, such as that of Juan de la Cosa. 

 There are indeed some striking points of resemblance 

 between these charts and the map of De la Cosa. De la 

 Cosa represents two large islands and some small ones 

 off Cape St. Augustine ; the French charts have one 

 large island and some small ones in the same position. 

 These islands may represent the discovery of Cabral, who at 

 first regarded Monte Pascoal as part of an island. {Geo. 

 dtc Mo(/en A(/e,n., p. 110.) Another point of resemblance 

 is in the delineation of the mouths of the Tocantins and 

 Amazon and the island Marajo. In both cases that island is 

 represented as a peninsula between two gulfs, and the two 

 coast-lines at this point are strikingly similar. Again, in De 

 la Cosa's map the river which disembogues a. little to the 

 south of Cape St. Roque is produced so as almost to cut off 

 the noi'th-eastern corner of Brazil ; in most of the French 

 maps it cuts it ofl' completely. 



I will now pohit out some details which I think will be 

 held sufficient to establish the identity between Jave la 

 (xrande and the American coasts I have mentioned. The 

 bay marked " Baye Perdue" has to the N.W. of it a small 

 island marked " Ye de S. Xtofer," or Island of St. Chris- 

 topher (commonly known as St. Kitts), and the bay itself 

 corresponds with the description given by Vespucci of " a 



