EARLY DISCO VERIKS. 



The whole question of the first discovery of Australia is enveloped in doubt and 

 mystery. The researches of R. H. Major, of the British Museum, have from time to 

 time brought to light various manuscript charts, concerning the genuineness of which 

 there has been no little controversy. These maps were supposed to date from between 

 1511 to 1542, and they 

 present a considerable 

 body of questionable 

 evidence in respect to 

 an early discovery of 

 Australia by the Portu- 

 guese, which has given 

 occasion to no end of 

 ingenious theorising on 

 the part of antiquaries 

 and geographers. G. 

 B. Barton, in his " His- 

 tory of New South 

 Wales," disposes judi- 

 ciously of the question 

 of an ante -historical 

 visit to Australia, the 

 proof of which rests on 

 so slender a foundation 

 as the manuscripts al- 

 luded to in the follow 

 ing passage, which we 

 have taken the liberty 

 to quote: "To deal 

 with the subject of dis- 

 covery, in the darkness 

 which still surrounds it, 

 is hardly a less difficult 

 task than that of the 

 learned Burgomaster 

 Witsen, when he under- 

 took to write on the 

 1 Migrations of Man- 

 kind.' We have only to 



recall the various theories with respect to the question of priority among the discoverers in 

 order to see the existing state of confusion. There are at least five such theories still in 

 existence: one sets up the Malays and the: Chinese as the first discoverers; another the 

 French ; a third, the Portuguese ; a fourth, the Spaniards ; and a fifth, the Dutch. Each 

 of these theories is supported by a great deal of argument and some evidence ; but 

 nothing seems to come of either but doubt and despair. To show how unsettled the 



THE " DUYKIIEN " IN THE CUI.K OK CARPENTARIA. 



