685 



AUSTERLITZ. 



AUSTRALIA. 



AUSTERLITZ, the chief town of the principality of Kaunitz- 

 Rittberg in the circle of Briinn, in Moravia, and about 9 miles E. from 

 the town of Briinn, stands on the Littawa and with its suburb contains 

 about 2200 inhabitants. A handsome palace, to which delightful 

 grounds are attached, forms its principal embellishment. This place 

 owes its celebrity to the ' Battle of the three Emperors,' which was 

 fought in its vicinity on the 2nd of December, 1805. In 1803 England 

 renewed the contest with France, and the first great blow struck by 

 Napoleon having stripped the English sovereign of his Hanoverian 

 dominions, Pitt succeeded in forming a coalition, to which Russia, 

 Austria, and Sweden became parties in 1805. Napoleon lost no time 

 in rapidly pouring his troops into the heart of Germany, where he cut 

 off the retreat of 24,000 Austrians under Field-Marshal Mack, shut 

 them up in Ulm, and forced them to surrender on the 17th of October. 

 On the llth of the following month Napoleon entered Vienna; and 

 the emperor Francis, having removed the Austrian head-quarters to 

 Olmiitz, in Moravia, was there joined by two divisions of the Russian 

 army. The arrival of the emperor Alexander on the 24th was the 

 signal for the movement of the allied forces upon Briinn, with the 

 view of offering battle to Napoleon, who had chosen that town for the 

 temjc'irary centre of his operations. Napoleon gained a complete vic- 

 tory Austerlitz. The first result of the battle was an armistice, the 

 terms of which were dictated by Napoleon ; the second was the treaty 

 made at Presburg (Dec. 26), by which it was agreed that Austria 

 should abandon the Venetian territories in favour of the kingdom of 

 Italy, and renounce her possessions in the Tyrol and Swabia, the latter 

 being designed by the conqueror for distribution between the Wiir- 

 temberg, Bavarian, and Baden sovereigns, as a reward for their co- 

 operation. This campaign cost the Austrian crown nearly 24,000 

 square miles of territory, 2,786,000 subjects, and an income of 

 1,300,000?. sterling, independently of severe temporary sacrifices. 



AUSTRALASIA, a name adopted to designate all the countries 

 which are considered as forming the fifth great division of the globe. 

 Up to the middle of the last century, and still later, theoretical geo- 

 graphers, from the fanciful idea of the necessity of an equilibrium in 

 the solid parts of the surface of the earth, imagined that a vast con- 

 tinent surrounded the Antartic Pole, and this imaginary continent 

 was called by them Terra A ustralis. When the errors of these specu- 

 lative geographers were corrected by the voyages and discoveries of 

 Captain Cook, all the islands lying to the south of Asia and those in 

 the Pacific Ocean had already received peculiar proper names. It did 

 not seem convenient to the geographers of that period to add these 

 islands either to Asia or to America, and they wished therefore to 

 devise a name which should comprehend all of them and at the same 

 time express their position on the globe. The English adopted 

 Amtralana, the French Oceanica, and the Germans changed the 

 Terra Australis into Australia. The name Australia is now however 

 generally and most conveniently confined to the principal island or 

 continent, while the French and most continental geographers apply 

 the term OCEANICA to all the islands in the Eastern Seas and in the 

 Pacific Ocean between 35 N. and 56 S. lat., and between 94 E. and 

 105 W. long. ; and the name of POLYNESIA to the smaller islands here 

 included with the main island or continent under Australasia. 



The islands composing Australasia are situated, as we have already 

 observed, partly to the south of Asia and partly in the wide Pacific 

 Ocean between Asia and America. From America they are divided 

 by a wide and open sea, but there is no natural boundary which 

 separates them from the islands belonging to Asia. When the Por- 

 tuguese and the Spaniards in the beginning of the 16th century began 

 to be acquainted with the islands of India they only visited those 

 which offered some mercantile advantages, and made settlements in 

 such as were calculated to reward the expense and toil of a conquest. 

 Those islands which did not offer any such advantages, and which 

 were consequently neglected by them, were not considered by their 

 geographers and historians as belonging to Asia. Such islands 

 accordingly remained excluded from the divisions of the globe at 

 that time existing, and they now form parts of Australasia. In this 

 way Japan, Formosa, the Philippines, the Moluccas, and that long 

 chain of islands which in the east begins with Timorlaut and on the 

 west terminates with Java are considered to belong to Asia ; while 

 the numerous islands lying between the Moluccas aijd New Guinea, 

 and at a short distance from the former, are included in Australasia. 



Australasia then consists of one very large island formerly called 

 New Holland, and now the Continent of Australia, or briefly Aus- 

 TRAUA (described in the following article), and of an indefinite number 

 of smaller islands lying to the S.E., E., and N.E, of this continent, 

 between 130 E. and 109 W. long., and between 30 N. and 50 

 S. lat. These islands lie in the Pacific Ocean either in groups or 

 scattered singly over the wide sea. They may be divided into those 

 to the north and those to the south of the equator. 



To the north of the equator, between 140 and 150 E. long., are 

 three groups, the Bonin Sima Islands, the Mariaues or Ladrones, and 

 the Carolinas ; the latter extend to 165 E. long. Nearly contiguous 

 to the Carolinas, between 165 and 180 E. long., are Lord Mulgrave's 

 Islands, forming different groups, or rather chains, as Ralick, Radack, 

 and Marshall Islands. Gilbert's Archipelago, situated on both sides 

 of the equator, is likewise considered as belonging to Lord Mulgrave's 

 Islands. The group of the Sandwich Islands lies at a great distance, 



between 150 and 160 W. long., and 19 and 23 N. lat. The inhabit- 

 ants of all these islands belong to the Malay race except the Bonin 

 Sima Islands, on which the Japanese have settled. 



South of the equator, and between it and the continent of Australia, 

 is the large island of New Guinea, which extends in the direction of 

 west-north-west and east-south-east over 17 degrees of longitude. 

 East of it lie the Admiralty group and the islands of New Britain, 

 New Ireland, New Hanover, and the Luisiade Archipelago, which are 

 followed by the extensive Solomon's Archipelago. All these islands 

 lie between the equator and 10 S. lat., and are inhabited by nations 

 belonging to the Austral Negroes, or Papuas. 



Between 10 S. lat. and the tropic of Capricorn lie the following 

 islands and groups : New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, the Feejee 

 Islands, the Santa Cruz Archipelago, the Friendly Islands, the Navi- 

 gator's Islands, Cook's Islands, Society Islands, and the Dangerous 

 Archipelago. North of the latter group are the Mendana or Marquesas 

 Islands, lying between 5 and 10 S. lat. 



At a great distance from these groups are situated Easter Island 

 and New Zealand ; the former lies in 27 S. lat. and 109 W. long., 

 and the latter consisting of three islands between 34 and 48 S. lat., 

 166 and 178 E. long. 



The island called Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, lies south of 

 the continent, between 41 and 43 S. lat., 145 and 147 E. long. 

 Further particulars of these islands will be found under their respec- 

 tive heads. 



AUSTRALIA is a very large island, formerly called New Holland, 

 lying S.E. of Asia, between 113 and 153 E. long., and 11 and 39 

 S. hit. It extends in its greatest length between Sharks Bay on 

 the west coast and Cape Sandy on the eastern 2400 miles, and 

 from north to south between Cape York on Torres Strait to Cape 

 Otway on Bass Strait about 1700 miles. Its average breadth may be 

 nearly 1400 miles. Timor and Timorlaut are the nearest of the 

 Asiatic islands, Timor being about 280 miles distant from Cape Talbot 

 and Timorlaut equally distant from Coburg Peninsula ; but the con- 

 tinent approaches nearer to New Guinea, which is separated from it 

 by Torres Strait, not quite 90 miles wide at Cape York. Australia is 

 divided from Van Diemen's Land by Bass Strait, which from north 

 to south has an average breadth of about 140 miles. 



Discovery of Australia. The coast of Australia was first seen in 

 March 1606 by the yacht Duyfen which had been sent in 1605 by the 

 Dutch government from Bantam to explore the coast of New Guinea ; 

 on its return from the expedition this vessel fell in with the coast of 

 continental Australia to the south of Endeavour's Strait, on the 

 eastern shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria. In the beginning of the 

 17th century (1605-1607) the Spanish navigators Pedro Fernandez de 

 Quiros and Luis Vaez de Torres undertook a voyage of discovery, and 

 while they remained together they discovered the Terra del Espiritu 

 Santo, which when re-discovered by Cook was found to consist of 

 many islands, and was called by him the New Hebrides. Torres 

 being separated from Quiros sailed along the southern coast of New 

 Guinea, and passed through the straits which separate that island 

 from the continent of Australia, and which at present bear his name. 

 He saw the coast of Australia at its most northern point, Cape York, 

 only a few months after it had been discovered by the Dutch, bv.o he 

 was not aware of its being part of a vast continent, and thought it 

 was some islands of small extent. The Dutch did not at first pursue 

 their voyages of discovery, though the greatest portion of the coasts 

 of the continent was shortly afterwards first accidentally seen by their 

 vessels carrying on the commerce between Europe and Batavia. In 

 1616 Theodoric Hertoge fell in with a part of the western coast 

 between 28 S. lat. and the tropic of Capricorn, and called it Eudracht's 

 Land (Country of Concord), from the name of the ship by which the 

 discovery was made. After this time discoveries on these coasts fol- 

 lowed closely on one another. In 1618 the coast from about 11 to 

 15 S. lat. was discovered by Zeachen, who seems to have coasted this 

 quarter of the island from the entrance of the Gulf of Carpentaria to 

 Cape Talbot, and to have called the eastern part of his discoveries 

 Arnhem's Land and the western Van Diemen's Land. The following 

 year Von Edels fell in with the western country about 30 S. lat., 

 and it received his name. In 1622' the southern extremity of the 

 island was discovered, and named Leeuwin Land (Lioness Laud), from 

 the name of the ship by which the discovery was made ; and five 

 years afterwards Peter Van Nuyts sailed along the southern coast, 

 which extends from Cape Leeuwin nearly to Spencer Gulf. In 1628 

 the Dutch discoveries on the continent of Australia were completed 

 by the discovery of De Witt's Land and of Carpentaria ; the first 

 named after th'e commodore De Witt who commanded the squadron, 

 and the second after the general Peter Carpenter who explored the 

 Gulf of Carpentaria with tolerable accuracy. Thus the Dutch navi- 

 gators discovered somewhat more than half the coast of the continent 

 of Australia. In 1642 Abel Jansen Tasman discovered Van Diemen's 

 Island, which up to the close of the last century was thought to be a 

 part of the continent of New Holland. 



The English entered much later on the career of discovery, and 

 were not at first successful. Towards the end of the 17th century 

 Dampier explored some parts of the coasts of the continent, but he 

 did not add to the number of discoveries. Captain Cook in his three 

 voyages, besides exploring and surveying a large number of the 



