354 



THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



and thorough 



explorations 



made. 



ment here could make lucrative trade with China. It 

 could also at last determine the much debated question, 

 are the Patagonians of gigantic stature ? 



The best way to pass from " Magellanica " to " Polynesia " 

 is not through the Straits but round Cape Horn. And 

 Polynesia is a very fascinating field for exploration. No 

 one has visited the Solomon Islands since Mendana in 

 1567, and no one has visited Espiritu Santo since Quiros 

 in 1606. Later navigators have taken a Northerly course 

 across .the Pacific, and have left unexplored the huge 

 region in the South which must contain a continent. Yet 

 they have already discovered innumerable islands, healthy, 

 fertile, charming, the happiest lands in the world. None 

 of these islands are occupied by Spain, except Guam in 

 the Ladrones, and thus Polynesia still offers a virgin 

 field. The natives of some islands are friendly, and in- 

 clined to trade, and it will be easy to found a colony 

 that would be very useful both to men of science and to 

 seamen. 



The man of science would find himself in a new world, 

 in which everything would be singular men, land and 

 sea. He would find interest in the problem presented 

 by chains of tiny islands, which seem to suggest a submerged 

 mountain ridge, showing its summits above water. He 

 would find interest also in studying the manners of peoples 

 isolated for so many centuries from the rest of mankind, 

 and still preserving, perhaps, the life of the primitive 

 man. Here, we find, says Le Maire, as in the first age 

 of which the poets write, man wholly simple, as produced 

 by nature. What an opportunity for French philosophers 

 of the age of Rousseau ! And, further, we would be able 

 to study not only man brutal and savage, like the natives 

 of New Holland, who live like fierce animals in herds in 

 the woods, but also men who have made some advance 

 in civilization, by using " the portion of intelligence that 

 Heaven has given them." 



Meanwhile, from such a colony the seamen might explore 

 the Southern Continent, find out what New Zealand is, 

 where no European has ever set foot, rediscover the land 



