48 



THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



Java 7,000 

 circuit" 1 



The 



J Friar e odor f ic 

 dictated 



Sumatra. 



Java "the 



iSJSfth 

 world." 



suggesting that the Pope ought to have a fleet on the Indian 

 Sea ! One of them had heard of Java as an island " more 

 than seven thousand miles in circuit, producing nutmegs, 

 mace, and all the finest spices, beautiful white mice, shaggy 

 pygmies, and cloves of deadly odour." l 



Of special interest in our story is the " Journal concerning 

 strange things which he saw among the Tartars of the 

 East," which a Franciscan Friar named Odoric 2 dictated 

 to another Friar in " the place of St. Anthony of Padua" 

 in May 1330 a journal which is described by Mr. Beazley 

 as " the fullest, the most graphic, and the most amusing 

 picture of Asia left by any religious traveller of this age." 

 " Being desirous to travel unto the foreign and remote 

 nations of infidels," Friar Odoric had seen and heard 

 " great and miraculous things," and he will tell nothing 

 save those things which " either I saw with mine own eyes, 

 or heard the same reported by credible and substantial 

 persons." After describing his journey through Persia 

 and India to Sumatra he is .the first European who dis- 

 tinctly and undoubtedly mentions the name of Sumatra 

 he tells us that he travelled further into another island, 

 called Java, the compass whereof by sea is three thousand 

 miles. Java is " thoroughly inhabited and is thought to 

 be the principal island in the world " ; other manuscripts 

 sa y variously " the best island," " the second best," " the 

 third best " ! 3 It produces all kinds of spices. Its King 

 has " a most brave and sumptuous palace," with roof of 

 pure gold, stairs of gold and silver, floors paved with 

 gold and silver, walls covered with plates of beaten gold, 

 whereupon are engraved the pictures of knights. The 

 Kaan of Cathay has had many wars with the King of Java ; 

 but the said King hath always overcome and vanquished. 



1 Beazley, vol. iii. p. 228. 



2 See discussion of Odoric's life in Yule's Cathay. He started 

 about 1316, returned in 1330, and died in 1331. His reputation for 

 sanctity grew, for reasons that are unknown, and in 1755 he was declared 

 a saint. His narrative, however, " gives the impression of a man 

 of little refinement, with a very strong taste for roving and seeing 

 strange countries, but not much for preaching and asceticism." 



3 Beazley, vol. iii. p. 265, note 6. 



