INTRODUCTION. 
the coast, approaches too near to the truth, for the whole to have 
been marked from conjecture alone. But, combining this with the 
exaggerated extent of Great Java in a southern direction, and the 
animals and houses painted upon the shores, such as have not been 
any where seen in Terra Australis, it should appear to have been 
partly formed from vague information, collected, probably, by the 
early Portuguese navigators, from the eastern nations ; and that 
conjecture has done the rest. It may, at the same time, be admitted, 
that a part of the west and north-west coasts, where the coincidence 
of form is most striking, might have been seen by the Portuguese 
themselves, before the year 1540, in their voyages to, and from, 
India. 
But quitting those claims to original discovery, in which conjec- 
ture bears so large a share, we come to such as are supported by 
undeniable documents. Before entering upon these, it is proper to 
premise, that, instead of following precisely the order of time, these 
discoveries will be classed under the heads of the different coasts 
upon which they were made : an arrangement which will obviate 
the confusion that would arise from being carried back from one 
coast to another, as must, of necessity, be the case, were the chrono- 
logical order to be strictly followed. 
The discoveries made in Terra Australis, prior to the Investigator's 
voyage, will, therefore, be divided into four Sections, under the 
following heads: 1. The North Coast; 2. The Western Coasts; 
3. The South Coast; and, 4. The East Coast with Van Diemen's 
Land. But the articles in the fourth Section, being numerous and 
more extensive, will be divided into two parts : Part I. will contain 
the early discoveries, and such of the later, as were made indepen- 
dently of the British colony in New South Wales ; and Part II. 
those which were made in vessels sent from that colony ; and which 
may be considered as a consequence of its establishment. 
