PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 355 



where Drake had landed, and the country which Davis 

 had seen, and which Roggeveen had failed to find. Juan 

 Fernandez, one of the finest places in the universe, should 

 be settled and fortified. Spain would much prefer that 

 it should be in the hands of French friends rather than 

 remain a safe refuge for British pirates, who by pillage and 

 smuggling devastate the Spanish coasts. 



But " Australasia " has still greater attractions as a (3) "Austral- 

 place of settlement. Here are solid masses of land that asia ' 

 are known to exist, New Holland, Van Diemen's Land, 

 Carpentaria (Cape York Peninsula), New Guinea, New 

 Britain, New Zealand ; though these lands are probably 

 not one continent, but huge islands separated by unknown 

 straits. Here is the opportunity for France to do things France's 

 on a large scale, and in the grand style. " If Spain, Portugal, PP ortumt y- 

 and Holland have immortalised their names by discoveries 

 and colonies, they have left to France a great and noble 

 task ; to France, to whom are due the earliest maritime 

 enterprise in the discovery of the Canaries and Guinea, 

 and of Australasia itself ; France, who now sees herself 

 able, by reason of the flourishing condition of her East 

 India Company, to make progress, soon if she wishes, 

 that will place her level with the three other nations, 

 and give her even in these distant regions the rank that 

 she holds in the European Republic ! " 



Which of the Australasian lands shall have the honour Where is the 



to be the scene of French enterprise ? New Zealand and felony ? f 



Van Diemen's Land are too distant, too Southerly, too 



unknown. In New Holland landing seems to be every- 



where difficult. Pelsart's voyage shows that the West 



coast is beset by an infinite number of little islands. The 



land near the sea is sterile and naked, like soil that the 



ocean has only just left uncovered, before the action 



of sun and rain, or accumulation of vegetable matter, 



have had time to make a soil in which plants and trees 



may grow and flourish. That on the coast looks still- 



born. It offers no curiosity except a wood that can be 



used for dyeing, gum trees, and shells of wonderful beauty 



and size, The natives are brutal and stupid, unable to 



