THE SUCCESSORS OF COOK 483 



rested on authority that was far less satisfactory. The 

 maps, it was true, gave the outline with a firm hand. But 

 there was no information whatever about the voyage 

 which had produced the map. The " general opinion " 

 was and the general opinion was right that the voyage 

 was Tasman's voyage of 1644. But though Tasman's 

 " Instructions " were extant Flinders says that they 

 had been "procured" by Banks, and had been printed 

 by Dalrymple no record survived of the voyage itself ; 

 and the map itself, thus unsupported, " was considered 

 as little better than a representation of fairy land." A 

 voyager might find the coast as it was drawn on the map ; 

 or he might find that there was no coast at all ; that 

 the " Gulf," was not a Gulf, but was, as some early Dutch 

 navigators had suspected, the opening of a passage which 

 ran to the South, and divided the continent into two parts. " The parts 



The North-West coast had also, it was understood, S^^ary 

 been mapped by Tasman. But Dampier, while using Island." ' 

 Tasman's map, had concluded that it was a superficial 

 piece of work, and that it expressed a radical misconception. 

 Dampier believed that what Tasman had drawn as a con- 

 tinuous coastline was in reality a collection of islands, 

 and he believed, in particular, that somewhere behind 

 Rosemary Island was the opening of a great channel 

 that communicated with the Eastern and Southern coasts. 

 Now Cook had proved that there was no channel with 

 outlet on the Eastern coast. But it remained at least 

 possible that there was a channel behind Rosemary Island 

 with outlets in the Gulf of Carpentaria, in the Australian 

 Bight, or in some great mediterranean sea in the unknown 

 heart of the continent. Or, again, instead of a channel there 

 might be the mouth of a mighty river, the Amazon of 

 New Holland. There was certainly " a great geographical 

 question to be settled relative to the parts behind Rosemary 

 Island." 



The Chart of the Western coast seemed to be founded 

 on good information as far South as Rottenest Island ; 

 " but, for its formation from thence to Cape Leeuwin, 

 there were no good documents." And knowledge of the 



