XV11 



coasts of tins island. As a matter of fact, the outlines in question 

 resemble Australia quite as much as those of South America in some of 

 these maps resemble the South America of our modern atlases. There 

 is one wide divergence from approximate similiarity in the south-east 

 corner of the maps— a divergence which, as I think, has not so far been 

 adequately dealt with, and with which, as I hope to deal with it on a 

 tuture occasion, I shall not occupy your time at present. 



" Finally, mark the position of Jave la Grande relatively to the other 

 Known continents and islands, and you will observe that it holds the 

 pace of the true Australia. An exception is its relation to the Malay 

 Archipelago, for it is placed immediately to the south of Java, Plores, 

 a jw Timor. This arose partly from the" errors in longitude already 

 alluded to, partly from the tendency to unite all imperfectly discovered 

 lands in the Southern Ocean into one southern continent,— a survival 

 ot the old Ptolemaic teaching. 



"Assuming then as proved that these maps are based on actual 

 discovery, we have next to enquire who were the discoverers. On this 

 point wc are fortunate in having independent testimony. On the same 

 map of Mercator, of the date 1569, on which occur the misunderstood 

 extracts from Marco Polo applied to one portion of the Terra Australis, 

 such as ' Beach provincia aurifera,' ' Maletur regnum scatens aroma- 

 tibus,' occurs also on another portion, to the south of Africa, this 

 remarkable inscription—' Psitacorum regio sic a Lusitanis hue libegio 

 Vento appulsis, cum Callicutum petercnt appellata propter earum avium 

 ttmltitudinem. Porro cum hujus terra littus ad 2000 miliarium prose- 

 luuti essent, necdum tamen finem invenerunt, inde australem contiDentem 

 attigisse indubitatum est.' This inscription is supported by a similar 

 °ne which occurs on a map of the antarctic hemisphere in the Speculum 

 Vrbis of C. de Judajis, Antwerp, 1592„onthat part of the Terra Australis 

 opposite the Cape of Good Hope—' Lusitani, bonae spei legentes capitis 

 Promontorium, hanc terram austrum versus extare viderunt, sed nondum 

 imploravere. ' The source whence this information was derived is that 

 to which I alluded in saying that the engraved maps of the sixteenth 

 century were not indebted exclusively to Marco Polo and Magellan for 

 their delineation of the Terra Australis. We gather from these inscrip- 

 tions that the Portuguese on their way to India by the Cape of Good 

 ■Hope were driven by a W., or more accurately W.S.W., 

 Wind (Libs) on the western coast of Australia which they followed 

 01 20 °0 miles. The region between the Cape and Australia is now 

 ascertained to be a well marked region of cyclones, with a prevailing 

 direction from W.N.VV. 'Within 20 years.' writes Mr. Petherick, 

 trom the departure of Vasco da Gama (1497), thirty-three fleets, com- 

 posed of 220 ships of war, had been sent out from Lisbon to the East.' 

 athenaeum, June 28, 1884. It would not be strange if some of these 

 vessels fell in with westerly storms of such violence as to drive them 

 into Australian waters. 



., The map of Desliens is in one respect of paramount importance, for 

 t places the flags of the various nations on the lands discovered by their 

 °eam ei]) an( j on j aye , a Q. raIJ de it places the flag of Portugal. It may 

 well be asked whether this be not the one link wanting to connect these 

 -IS. maps with the chance discovery so briefly but circumstantially 

 narrated by Mercator. 



Lastly, as to the date. This, in default of information, cannot 

 ? *jxed with accuracy, but may fall between the years 1500, — the date 

 °f! "••P ortuguese expedition tolndia following that of Vasco da Gama— 

 i, i 536 ' tlle la * e st probable date of the earliest of these maps. 



There is one other matter to which I will briefly allude before closing. 



great deal has been said about the disappearance of the original 



arawings from which these maps of J ave la Grande were constructed, and 



