104 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



determined by the phrase of Nicolo de Conti that certain 

 places in Southern India were situated " in the second 

 gulf beyond the Indus," which was understood to mean 

 that they were in the gulf of Siam. So, in Behaim's map 

 of 1492, " India Patalis " is somewhere in the longitude 

 of the Malay Peninsula, and has reached 10 S. Lat. 1 And 

 in a map of the medieval type, first printed in 1522, 

 Patalis Regio, linked to India by the Terrestrial Paradise, 

 extends Southward to the very bottom of the map. 2 In 

 fact Patala had travelled so far Southward, that Magellan's 

 voyage, breaking down the Roger Bacon bridge, cut off 

 its retreat, and Finaeus decided that it must stay in the 

 " Austral Continent." 



On the Western bulge of his Austral Land Finaeus 

 and Brazil, writes " BRASiELiE REGIO " ; a phrase which we recognize 

 at once as another illustration of the rapid ways of geo- 

 graphic names. Schoner had learnt about 1515 that 

 South America was a good place for the dye-wood called 

 brazil. He therefore called the country Brazil, and the 

 land to the South he also called " Region of Brazil " 

 or " Lower Brazil." Finaeus thought the idea a good 

 one, but as he had decided to call the Eastern bulge 

 "Regio Patalis " he had, it seems, to push his " Region of 

 Brazil" Westward, to a point at which it nearly reached 

 Marco Polo's Island of Zanzibar in the neighbourhood 

 of Africa. This seems to explain the fact that in Mercator's 

 map there is a province of Terra Australis far away to 

 the South of the Cape of Good Hope called " Region 

 of Parrots " (Psittacorum Regio). 3 A coast far away 

 to the South of the Cape of Good Hope looks an unlikely 

 place for parrots, but there are always plenty of parrots 

 in " Brazil," and Frobisher and other map-makers assure 

 us that in this place " Portugals see popinjays commonly 

 of a marvellous greatness." 



We are now able to look again at the Map of Mercator 



1 See p. 55. 



2 See p. 103. 



3 In Mercator the Region of the Parrots is in about 45. In other 

 maps of the same type it is as far South as 60 or 70. 



