The First Discovery of Australia and New Guinea | Page 9

the same category, have been made for the Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide Free Public Libraries, at considerable expense. This was a wise step on the part of our governments, for the strongest evidence of early discovery as yet brought to light is shown in the draughting of these old charts of Australia.
Unfortunately, as I have said, they are all mere copies of copies, the first of which were more or less altered in outline and corrupted in nomenclature, from a prototype which has not yet been found.
But, if the internal evidence of these odd charts clearly shows the original or originals to have been Portuguese or Spanish, one point of the question will be settled, and the Portuguese and Spanish will undoubtedly be entitled to the claim and honor of having discovered Australia.
As to the matter of date, that is of less importance, and can be fixed approximately, for the discovery must have taken place at some period between the arrival of the Portuguese and Spanish in these seas and the draughting of the earliest known chart, that is between the years 1511 and 1536, a period of 25 years.*
[* When the Portuguese reached India and the East Indian Archipelago (1511) they were the masters in those seas, and became the possessors of many charts used by Javanese, Malay, Chinese, and Arabian sailors. The great Albuquerque refers to a large chart of this description, which was afterwards lost at sea, but of which copies had been made by the pilot Rodriguez. It showed all the coasts and islands from China, the Spice Islands, and Java, to the Cape of Good Hope and Brazil. It is difficult to believe that the Javanese, Malays, Chinese, or Arabs had any knowledge of Brazil in South America, although the Malays and Arabs had rounded the Cape of Good Hope, coming from the east side, of course. I am inclined to think that the term Brazil mentioned by Albuquerque refers to Australia, which had been called Brasilie Regio from an early date--a date prior to the discovery of Brazil in the year 1500. See, on this subject, my paper in the proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia under the heading "Is Australia the Baptismal Font of Brazil?" Vol. VI., No. 1, Sydney, N.S.W.]
But, after all, until the very date of the expedition which resulted in the first discovery can be ascertained, the question of nationality of the first discoverers is a much more interesting one.
Having no other documentary evidence except these old charts, the first conclusion drawn was that as they are all written in French, the French were the discoverers in spite of the fact that no French claim had been made.
The late R. H. Major, the author of "Early Voyages to. Australia," having thoroughly considered the possibility of a French claim, came to the conclusion that such a claim was untenable. Being somewhat shaken, however, in his first belief of a Portuguese discovery, he was led to adopt a Proven?al theory to explain certain words which on these old Gallicized charts, were neither Portuguese nor French. The whole subject was in this state of incertitude and confusion, when, a few years ago, having occasion to examine minutely these old documents, I discovered on the oldest of them a phrase in Portuguese, which, curiously enough, had escaped the notice of all the learned critics who had made a special study of this early specimen of cartography.
The phrase I had discovered, "Anda ne barcha," or "No boats go here," situated as it is in the Gulf of Carpentaria, had, in my mind, a very great significance, since it not only proves the Portuguese origin of the chart, but also the genuineness of the discovery made in that as it showed that the discoverers were fully aware of the shallowness of the water off this part of the coast of Australia.
It must be admitted however, that on the original chart the nautical phrase "Anda ne barcha," may refer to the difficulty of navigating the strait between Java and Bali, or the one between Bali and Lomboc.
When I say that this phrase proves the Portuguese origin of the chart, I do not mean to convey the idea that I accepted it, there and then, as a proof of Portuguese origin, but I rather took it as a clue, for the meaning of those words had evidently not been understood by the copyist, since he had left them in their original form, instead of translating them into French, and had mistaken them for the names of two islands.
This clue led me to make a special study of every word on the chart that had proved so interesting, the result being that I came to the conclusion that the western coasts of Australia had been chartered by