9 8 



THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



another very wide passage between Virginia and New- 

 foundland. But while his map is no good evidence as 

 to the discovery of a strait leading into the Indian Ocean, 

 it is very good evidence as to what geographers expected 

 would be found on the other side. According to Schoner's 



THE WESTERN HALF OF SCHONER'S FIRST GLOBE, 1515. 

 (From Steven's Johann Sckiini'r.) 



conception in the map of 1515 1 there is a great ocean round 

 the South Pole. But this ocean is surrounded by a thick 

 ring of land, 2 with one opening in the ring in a direction 

 due South from Java. This ring of land Schoner calls 

 "the region of Brazil" in the map of 1515, an d 



1 See map on this page. 



2 The map of 1520 breaks up this ring into a group of large islands : 

 which seems to show how wholly fanciful were the map-makers' dreams 

 about the structure of the Southern World. 



