HISTORY OF DISCOVERY. \5 



discoverer of the New World, and gave first to Brazil 

 and subsequently to the whole continent the name of 

 Terra Americi or America. Still it is by no means 

 certain that the southern and insignificant discovery made 

 by the Portuguese vessels did not secretly revive and 

 perpetuate the myth of the great southern continent 

 bounding: the oceans and covering- in the South Pole. 



THE NEW TERRA A US TR A LIS AND THE PROOF OF ITS 

 NON-EXISTENCE. 



Very soon after the exploration of the Brazilian 

 coasts, several expeditions were made there, although 

 the country had not the attraction of either gold or 

 spices to offer. And these voyages seem to have been 

 undertaken without the authority and probably without 

 even the knowledge of the Portuguese Government. 

 They are mentioned here simply because they revived 

 the idea of the Ptolemaic Austral country, though now 

 no longer supposed to be connected with either Asia 

 or Africa, and projected farther across still unknown 

 seas. At length a FYench vessel from Honfleur in Nor- 

 mandy, under the command of the Sieur Binot Paulmier 

 de Gonneville, reached Brazil in 1504, though it cannot 

 be ascertained at what point he landed. Gonneville, who 

 brought back a young native on his return voyage, speaks 

 in his account of the discovery of hitherto unknown 

 "southern lands," and thus in the course of time these 

 were sought to the south of the Cape of Good Hope 

 instead of in Brazil. Somewhat later, about the years 

 1508-9, a widespread publication, obviously a trans- 

 lation from the Portuguese, appeared in Italy and Ger- 

 many, called Copia dcr Newen Zeytung aus Pressilgland. 

 This gave an account of the voyage of two Portuguese 

 ships to the Brazilian coast. They were stated to have 

 reached a latitude of 40° S., and to have found straits on 



