WAS AUSTRALIA KNOWN ? 93 



So far our argument has hung together, and has pointed 

 strongly to a conclusion : the conclusion that neither 

 Spaniards nor -Portuguese knew anything whatever about 

 Australia. We now, however, have to give careful con- 

 sideration to two series of contemporary maps which, at 

 first sight, seem to point to a different conclusion. 



As representative of the first series we may take Mercator's Maps of a 

 map of I569. 1 Here we find Tierra del Fuego depicted, not 



as an island, but as a promontory of a huge continent, whose Magellanican 

 coast line, drawn with firm hand, stretches in unbroken 



curve away to the North- West till it all but touches New suggests 

 Guinea at a point which suggests Cape York. On the huge O f North 

 continent is written, " This Austral continent some call Australia. 

 Magellanican from its discoverer." New Guinea is repre- Mercator's 

 sented as a large square-built island. Its northern coast, map 

 which, as we have seen, had been discovered and redis- 

 covered, is drawn with deeply marked headlands and bays, 

 and with many names. The East, West and South coasts 

 are drawn in unbroken curves and have no names. The 

 passage between the South coast of New Guinea, and the 

 North coast of the Magellanican continent a passage that 

 makes one think of Torres Strait is partially occupied by 

 a conventional pattern. And on New Guinea we have an 

 inscription which ends by saying that " whether it is an 

 island or part of the Austral continent is hitherto unknown." 

 Westward from New Guinea the coast line of the Austral 

 continent falls away into a great gulf, the Western side of 

 which is formed by another huge promontory which nearly 

 reaches Java. The great gulf makes one think of the Gulf 

 of Carpentaria : and in the midst of it in addition to a 

 mighty fish which stretches its huge length half-way across 

 the gulf are two islands, the larger of which looks as if it 

 might possibly be Groote Eyland. Then the coast line falls 

 away steeply to the South-West, and finally, after skirting 



is," writes Major, " simply a line indicating the north part of an un- 

 explored land, exactly in the position of the north of Australia, distinctly 

 implying an imperfect discovery, but not copied from, or bearing any 

 resemblance to, any indication of the kind in any previous map " 

 (Early Voyages, p. Ixv). 

 1 See map, p. 91. 



