AJS^NITEESAET ADDEESS. 



DiSCOTERT OF AlJSTEALIA. 



Among tlie many interesting events that have recently invited 

 tte attention of geographers at Home is one which ought to 

 awaken sympathy among ourselves. Certain opinions expressed 

 during a discussion some time ago in a colonial journal have, in 

 my humble judgment, done injustice to the claims to our respect 

 of the great circumnavigator, Captain Cook. Long ago, also, it 

 had been insinuated that Captain Cook was not the discoverer 

 of New South Wales, but that he borrowed the names and places on 

 his chart from a chart of some older navigator. It is frequently 

 the case that merit is denied to those who work for the public, 

 and unworthy judgments are passed by ill-natured critics. On 

 reading Mr. Major's work, published by the Hakluyt Society, I 

 find the author has very properly quoted, in refutation of the 

 unjust surmise, the able and satisfactory defence of Captain 

 Cook's reputation from the jealousies of an adversary, by M. 

 Metz, a Frenchman, published in the year 1805. M. Metz states 

 that Dalrymple never forgave Cook on account of his having 

 been preferred to himself in the command of the "Endeavour," and 

 therefore he endeavoured himself to do Cook an injury, by trying 

 to show that localities named by him were to some extent very 

 much like places named by others in distant parts of the world. 

 The French author shows conclusively that it is perfectly foolish 

 to think that Cook could choose names that would betray 

 plagiarism of the kind. The particular object of my reference to 

 this matter is to lead to an earlier event in the history of 

 Australia, and to point out, from recent researches, to whom the 

 first discovery of it is to be assigned. 



The Eev. Julian E. T. Woods, in his carefully compiled history 

 of the discovery and exploration of this great Country, has given 

 an excellent account of " Early Voyages" to it, and stated in a 

 foot-note that he was indebted for many facts and quotations to 

 the work written by Mr. E. H. Major, and published by the 

 Hakluyt Society, in 1859. That work bears the title " Early 

 Voyages to Terra Australia, now called Australia." It consists 



