814 REPORT—1899. 
On the return journey a visit was paid to the town of Artwin, otie of the most 
important Armenian settlements in these parts. It dominates a beautiful gorge of, 
the Chorokh, and offers many interesting aspects of native life. 
3. A Journey in King Menelek’s Dominions. By Captain M. 8S. WEtzBy. 
The Paper deals with the following subjects :— 
Reference to the capital of Abyssinia—Travelling with King Menelek’s army— 
Breakfast with his Imperial Majesty—Present and future character of the Abyssi- 
nian people—Abyssinian power and conquests—Effect of different foods on the 
human body—Bottego, the Italian explorer—A chain of lakes and an independent 
tribe—Effect on the tribes of King Menelek’s rule—The devils of Walamo—Reli- 
gious beliefs of the Asilli tribes—The outflow of the river Womo (Omo)—A 
voleano—Lake Gallop: waves in tropical Africa—The unknown land between 
Gallop and the Nile Valley—An advanced post in the Sudan—My Abyssinian 
followers. 
4, The Discovery of Australia. By Epwarp Heawoop, JfA. 
The first authenticated voyage to Australia was made by a Dutch vessel in 
1606, but it has been thought by many, from indications on maps of a much earlier 
date, that voyages had been made by the navigators of some other European nation, 
early in the previous century. These maps are of the Dieppe school of carto- 
graphy, and are all—as regards this part of the world—based on one prototype, | 
the earliest known to us dating from about 1536. They show a continental land 
to the south-east of Java, bearing the name Jave la Grande, ‘the Greater Java,’ in 
distinction from Java proper. The fairly full nomenclature round the coasts has 
been thought to imply an actual discovery, and as Australia is the only large land 
in this quarter of the globe, the land delineated has been supposed to represent 
Australia. 4 
A comparison of the outlines of these maps with those of Australia shows little 
real resemblance, while other considerations would rather lead to the conclusion 
that Jave la Grande really represents a reduplication of Java proper in a greatly 
exaggerated form. The influence of the old writers, especially Marco Polo, was 
still very great at the beginning of the sixteenth century. That traveller spoke of 
Java as Java Major, with a circuit of 3,000 miles, and his nomenclature was 
followed by a large number of map makers. The native charts in use before the 
advent of the Portuguese gave Java an inclination to the south-east, such as is 
shown by the coast-line on the French maps, while the earliest Portuguese map of 
the Archipelago presents a somewhat similar reduplication of Java. The charts of 
Rodriguez, partly based on native material, are a proof that large-scale representa- 
tions of Java were in existence at the time, while the extent of coast-line definitely 
shown on the earliest of the French maps is absolutely identical with that of the 
Javan coasts known to the Portuguese about 1519. The correspondence of the 
outline is fairly satisfactory, especially in the south-west, while the scanty indica- 
tions of the nomenclature point to Java at least as much as to Australia. 
Finally, the hypothetical nature of other details in these maps as regards the 
Far East should make us hesitate to base the assumption of a discovery of Australia 
in the fifteenth century on their unsupported testimony. 
5. A Journey to Wilezek Land and the Problem of Arctic Exploration. 
- By Waiter WELLMAN. 
