i:6 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



is called Jave la Grande. It is separated from Java 

 by a narrow channel which is called Rio Grande. In 

 another map made by Pierre Desceliers and dated 

 1550 two men are to be seen with mattocks in hand 

 in the act of digging this river. The outline of the coast 

 of Jave la Grande is broken by bays and capes, rivers 

 and islands, that are drawn with a definiteness and a 

 variety that, if used by a modern map-maker, would suggest 

 a claim to actual knowledge. In the two maps by Jean 

 Rotz the Western coast line ends at 35. In another, 

 the " Dauphin " map, all detail ends at the same point, 

 whence a straight and nameless line is drawn to the bottom 

 of the paper. But Desceliers' maps of 1546 and 1550 

 have details and names down to 50, at which point, 

 the coastline of Jave la Grande joins the coastline of 

 a great Southern continent, like that of Mercator's school, 

 which is called " La Terre Austral nondum tout (!) des- 

 couverte," though Desceliers can give you the names of 

 geographic features even on this not wholly discovered 

 continent. On the Eastern side, one map, by Rotz, 

 makes the coast end at 60, while the others extend it 

 to the Southern margin. The interior is ornamented 

 with unusual profuseness and variety. In one map we 

 see animals that remind one of those seen by the comrades 

 of Magellan in Patagonia : x " with the head and ears 

 of a mule, the body of a camel, the legs of a stag, and 

 the tail of a horse " ; other animals that look rather like 

 cows, and also rather like stags ; well-built farms assailed 

 by naked savages, spears in hand. In another map we 

 have two lions, and a feudal castle. In another (Vallard's) 

 we have picturesque snow-clad mountains, a serpent nearly 

 as long as the tree up which it climbs, and animals that look 

 like camels. In another we have the two men. with mattocks 

 digging the " River " between Java and Jave la Grande, 

 while the interior is occupied by illustrated quotations 

 from Marco Polo's descriptions of Java, Pegu, Malacca, 

 Sumatra, the Andaman islands and Ceylon. 



Now it is contended by writers of great learning and 

 1 Mr, Collingridge's suggestion. 



