THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



Ptolemy's 



Terra 



Incognita, 



A.D. 150. 



The geo- 

 graphy of 

 the Middle 

 Ages was 

 based 

 on inter- 

 pretations 

 of the 

 Scriptures. 



geographical information had been accumulated. Seamen 

 had pushed Southward down the East coast of Africa, 

 Southwards even of the Equator. Definite knowledge also 

 had been obtained of a " Silk-land," distant from India, 

 extending far to the East and far to the North. News 

 also had been heard, it seems, of lands stretching 

 down from Asia far to the South-East. It seems certain 

 .that Ptolemy had some knowledge of the Malay Peninsula. 

 It seems certain, also, that rumours had reached him of 

 the long string of Malaysian islands, lying so close together 

 that they may well have been described as one continuous 

 land. Evidently there was far more land than had been 

 imagined. Much was still unknown ; but, when Ptolemy 

 thought, he thought in continents. Against Mela's " wet 

 theory," which supposed the unknown to be Ocean, he 

 set the " dry theory," which supposed the unknown to 

 be land. In his famous map the circumfluent Ocean 

 Sea disappears. Eastern Asia extends indefinitely both 

 Eastward and Southward. At about 15 S. Lat. it takes 

 a decisive turn to the West, and runs along that parallel 

 till it meets the continent of Africa in the same latitude. 

 Thus the Indian Ocean is made a " mediterranean " 

 sea, wholly enclosed by land, so that you can reach it 

 neither by rounding Africa, nor by sailing West from 

 Europe. And the Southern coast of this sea, in about 

 Lat. 15 S., is a Terra Incognita, Ptolemy's way of re- 

 presenting the unknown land of the Southern temperate 

 zone. x 



Such was the heritage which the ancient world handed 

 to medieval times. The knowledge was never wholly 

 lost. But it wholly ceased to grow. The " dark ages " 

 had no use for the science of the Greeks, and great dis- 

 trust of it. Philosophy gave place to the Scriptures ; 

 thought obeyed that which was written ; the spirit that 

 questions, and explores, and denies, and proves, was put 

 to sleep. In place of Socrates, " gadfly of the Athenian 

 people," stinging men into thought, into criticism of the 



1 See Rawlinson's explanation of Ptolemy's geography of the East 

 in India and the Western World, pp. 130-137. 



