CHAPTER VI 



WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN IN THE SIXTEENTH 

 CENTURY ? 



AUTHORITIES : 



Early Voyages to Australia, ed. MAJOR (Hakluyt Society). 

 COLLINGRIDGE'S Discovery of Australia. 

 COLLINGRIDGE'S First Discovery of Australia. 



Contempo- WE have now followed the story of the coming of Portu- 

 muratives guese and Spaniards to the Indian Ocean. Our next con- 

 show no cern is to ask whether the seamen of those nations acquired 

 Australia 6 an Y knowledge of Australia. 



In telling the story of the Portuguese and Spanish 

 voyages I have sought to state all the facts known to me 

 that are at all likely to throw light on this question. And 

 remarkably little light they have thrown. Let us recall 

 our main facts. 



In 1512 the Portuguese reached the Spice Islands. From 

 that date Portuguese traders visited them, settled in them 

 in very small numbers a governor thought he was very 

 well off with an army of a hundred or so and made trading 

 voyages along the North coasts of the string of islands as 

 far Eastward as the island of Aru and the Northern coast of 

 New Guinea. There is, I think, no evidence that they 

 sailed along the Southern coast of New Guinea except the 

 fact that they described it as " a large island," a phrase that 

 seems to indicate some knowledge of the trend of the 

 Southern coast. Twice Spanish ships sailed from the 

 Straits of Magellan, and on several occasions Spanish ships 

 sailed from Mexico, to the Philippines and the Moluccas : 

 and some of these ships, trying to fight their way back to 



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