i io THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



one cannot say much, since it has been discovered only in 

 two or three straits ; as in the region of the Straits of 

 Magellan, where we call the land Tierra del Fuego, etc., 

 and at New Guinea, which we likewise think to be a part 

 of it." On the frontispiece of the Atlas, the four continents 

 are represented as female figures at full length. And 

 near the figure of America is placed, not a fifth full-length 

 figure, but a female bust of head, neck and breasts, and 

 under the breasts burns a fire. And a Latin verse explains : 

 " Not far off, the last nymph raises her shining head, with 

 a virgin's face and features and lovely breasts, but hand- 

 less and foot-less, barely known even by a few. They say 

 that of late the Spaniard Magellan burned with love for 

 her, for he chanced to look once upon her unaware amid 

 the flames that flashed all about her. Then the maiden, 

 suffused with a deep blush, at once veiled her head, and 

 wrapped herself in dusky smoke and the shade of murky 

 darkness. But, so as not rashly to allow herself to be seen 

 a second time, she fixed this remembering flame .beneath 

 her breast." x The love-adventure of Magellan and the 

 bashful virgin was a topic of singular fascination to geo- 

 grapher poets. The Latin verses were reprinted in every 

 new Latin edition of Ortelius ; and, when a French edition 

 was published, a new poet retold in French verse the 

 famous old story in a form enriched by further imagina- 

 tions. Magellan, he says, barely kissed her on the mouth, 

 and did not find out whether her limbs were " black, 

 white, shorn or hairy, but shrewdly did he suspect, from 

 the flames of fire that he saw around her, that he was not 



1 " Haud procul hinc nitidum caput exserit ultima Nymphe, 

 Virginis os vultumque gerens, pectusque venustum ; 

 Trunca manus et trunca pedes, vix cognita paucis. 

 Hujus amore aiunt Magellum nuper Iberum 

 Exarsisse, freto dum se commisit ad Austrum, 

 Et vocitasse suo de nomine MAGELLANAM. 

 Ille etenim turn forte, micantibus undique flammis, 

 Incautam semel adspexit, solemnia festa 

 Dum parat ; Hinc virgo multo suffusa rubore 

 Extemplo caput occuluit, furvoque seipsam 

 Involvit fumo et fuscae calignis umbris. 

 At, ne fors iterum temere sese ilia videndam 

 Praebeat, hanc fixit memorem sub pectore flammam." 



