440 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



On the 2 1st of August they observed that " the main 

 looked very narrow, so we began," says Banks, " to look 

 out for the passage we expected to find between New 

 Holland and New Guinea. At noon one was seen very 

 narrow, but appearing to widen." Cook named the 

 Northern Promontory York Cape " in honour of his late 

 Royal Highness." 



Endeavour Ahead they saw islands, detached by narrow channels 

 from the mainland. Cook sent the boats to sound the 

 Channel next to the main. Shoals and rocks were dis- 

 covered, and he signalled the boats to lead through the 

 next channel to the Northward. The ship followed, and 

 Cook satisfied himself that he " had at last found out a 

 passage into the Indian Seas." He had now completed his 

 survey of the Eastern coast of New Holland from Latitude 

 38, a coast which he was confident had " never been 

 seen or visited by any European before us." l He landed 

 on an island (Possession Island) and, " a little before 



1 In 1786 Dairy mple, moved by immortal hatred of a supplanter, 

 wrote a statement which meant that the Portuguese-French maps 

 of the sixteenth century proved that the Eastern coast had been 

 seen and visited by Europeans 200 years before Cook's voyage ; that 

 Cook had known this fact perfectly well ; and that he had sought 

 to pose as first discoverer by stealing the old names (Major, 

 p. xxxi.). The accusation was as ridiculous as it was malicious. If 

 Cook had, in the circumstances imaginefl, wished to conceal the old 

 discovery, he would carefully have avoided the old names. But it 

 seems perfectly certain that in 1770 Cook had no acquaintance with 

 these 6ld maps. Even Dalrymple had no acquaintance with them 

 in 1770 ; for in his Voyages, published that year, he does not mention 

 them. It seems that Banks heard of one of these old maps after his 

 return, bought it at what date is not known and gave it to the 

 British Museum in 1790. Unluckily we do not know what he thought 

 about the map. // the name Botany Bay had been given after the 

 return to England, a possible though improbable view would be that it 

 was suggested by the Coste des Herbaiges of the old map. But I am sure 

 that the name Botany Bay was given in the course of the voyage, and 

 that the sufficient suggestion came from Banks 's collection of plants. 

 In his second voyage, Cook named an island off New Caledonia Botany 

 Island, " because it contained in so small a space a flora of thirty 

 species " (Forster, vol. ii. p. 439). If Cook and Banks thought that the 

 old map showed a previous discovery of the East coast, I have no doubt 

 they said so, and without sense of diminished glory. Cook would h'ave 

 been as much pleased by identifying a Portuguese Botany Bay as he was 

 pleased by identifying Quiros's Bay of St. Philip and St. James. See 

 able discussions by Major, pp. xxxi. et seq., and by Bladen in Historical 

 Records of N.S.W., vol. i. part i. pp. xxiii. and p. 161. 



