be correct) are contained in one volume in the British Museum; one of
them is a detailed map, and the other an almost skeleton map of the
world in hemispheres, with the latitudes and longitudes marked, and the
names of “the lytel Java” and “the londe of Java” laid down on the great
country in question. It is from this latter map that the annexed extract
is given, on the same scale as the original, the octavo page being
sufficiently large to admit the portion required to be shown. The only
point of difference calling for special remark is, that in the original
hemisphere the line representing the eastern coast does not reach to the
bottom of the map, but terminates abruptly in the same degree of
latitude as represented in the copy, though that degree is here, for
convenience sake, made to coincide with the margin of the map. Indeed
the special interest of this particular map is, that whereas all the
others which represent this remarkable country have the coast line
extended indefinitely to the southern margin; on this both the eastern
and western coast lines stop abruptly at certain points, of which we are
able to take cognizance by the degrees of latitude being shown on the
same map. The volume containing these two important maps bears the date
of 1542, and was made by one Jean Rotz, who had in the first instance
intended to dedicate it to the king of France, but afterwards presented
it to king Henry VIII of England. In this dedication to the king, he
says that the maps are made “au plus certain et vray quil ma esté
possible de faire, tant par mon experience propre, que par la certaine
experience de mes amys et compagnons navigateurs;” and at the close, he
expresses his hope to compose shortly a work in English, which was to be
printed, to the great profit and advantage of all the navigators and
seamen of this prosperous kingdom. It is to be regretted that we do not
possess the work here promised, as much light might thereby have been
thrown upon the mystery in which the question before us is involved. It
has been suggested by Malte Brun, that the author was a Fleming, who
came over to England with Anne of Cleves in 1540. The idea may have
originated in the form of the name, but would hardly have been
maintained had Malte Brun read Rotz’s dedication, in which he speaks of
the king of France as having been “mon souverin et naturel signeur.”
There can be no doubt, then, that he was a French subject.
The fifth in date, if we suppose it to have been made early in the reign
of Henry II, is a map given in fac-simile by M. Jomard, in his
_Monuments de la Géographie, ou Recueil d’Anciennes Cartes_, now in
progress, and is described by him as “Mappemonde peinte sur parchemin
par ordre de Henri II, Roi de France.”
The sixth is a map in a Portolano at the Depôt de la Guerre, Paris,
drawn in 1555 by Guillaume le Testu, a pilot of Grasse, in Provence, or
as others have thought a Norman. André Thevet, cosmographer to Henry II,
boasts of having often sailed with him, and always styles him as
“renommé pilote et singulier navigateur.” The map was drawn for Admiral
Coligny, to whom it is dedicated and whose name it bears. The editor has
succeeded in procuring a tracing of that portion which affects the
present question, and finds it to agree with the other maps of the kind
in the delineation of the coast of “la Grande Java.”
On the reduced tracing of the most fully detailed of these maps given at
p. xxvii, are inscribed some names of bays and coasts which were noticed
in the first instance by Alexander Dalrymple, the late hydrographer to
the Admiralty and East India Company, to bear a resemblance to the names
given by Captain Cook to parts of New Holland which he had himself
discovered.
In his memoir concerning the Chagos and adjacent islands, 1786, p. 4,
speaking of this map he says:—“The east coast of New Holland, as we name
it, is expressed with some curious circumstances of correspondence to
Captain Cook’s MS. What he names
Bay of Inlets, is in the MS. called Bay Perdue.
Bay of Isles R. de beaucoup d’Isles.
Where the Endeavour struck Coste dangereuse.
So that we may say with Solomon, ‘There is nothing new under the sun.’”
To the discredit of so well informed and laborious a man as Dalrymple,
to whom, perhaps, next to Hakluyt, this country is the most largely
indebted for its commercial prosperity, this passage was but an
invidious insinuation, intended to disparage the credit of Captain Cook,
of whose appointment to the command of the _Endeavour_ he was extremely
jealous. Dalrymple had earnestly desired the command of an expedition to
discover the great southern continent, the existence of which he had
endeavoured to prove by various philosophical arguments, which later
times have shown to be not without foundation; and his observation would
seem to imply that Cook, who had been so successful in his discoveries
on the coast of New Holland, might have been led thereto by an
acquaintance with this pre-existent map. The unworthy insinuation met
with a sensible refutation, we are happy to record, from the pen of a
Frenchman, M. Frederic Metz, in a paper printed at p. 261, vol. 47, of
_La Revue, ou Decade Philosophique, Littéraire et Politique_, Nov.,
1805. For the sake of clearness, the editor avoids here giving the whole
of M. Metz’s paper, in which an attempt is made to disprove that New
Holland was discovered at this time by the Portuguese at all, but will
merely quote those passages which meet Dalrymple’s insinuation. M. Metz
says:—
“It had been generally believed that we were indebted to the Dutch
for our acquaintance with this vast country, and that the celebrated
Cook had in his first voyage discovered its eastern coast, which he
named New South Wales, until the discovery was made in the British
Museum of a map upon parchment, presumed to be of the sixteenth
century, on which was observed a large country laid down on the site
occupied by New Holland. On the eastern coast of this country places
were found with the names ‘Côte des Herbaiges,’ ‘Rivière de beaucoup
d’Iles,’ ‘Côte dangereuse,’ names which present a great resemblance
to those of ‘Botany Bay,’ ‘Bay of Islands,’ and ‘Dangerous Coast,’
given by Cook to parts of New South Wales.
“The resemblance of these names struck many persons. Mr. Dalrymple,
a man of the greatest merit, but a personal enemy of Cook, whom he
never forgave for having received, in preference to him, the command
of the _Endeavour_, in the voyage made to observe the passage of
Venus, and especially for having demolished, beyond of hope of
recovery, his theories of the existence of the southern lands, and
of the north-west passage of America: Mr. Dalrymple, I say, took
occasion therefrom to insinuate in one of his works, that the
discovery of the east of New Holland was due to some navigator of
the sixteenth century, and that Cook had only followed in his
track....
“As to the resemblance of the names—this seems to me to prove
exactly the contrary of the conclusions which it has been attempted
to draw from them. If Cook had been acquainted with the maps in
question, and had wished to appropriate to himself the discoveries
of another, will any one suppose him so short-sighted as to have
preserved for his discoveries the very names which would have
exposed his plagiarism, if ever the sources which he had consulted
came to be known. The ‘dangerous coast’ was so named because there
he found himself during four hours in imminent danger of shipwreck.
We must suppose, then, that he exposed himself and his crew to an
almost certain death in order to have a plausible excuse for
applying a name similar to that which this coast had already
received from the unknown and anonymous navigator who had previously
discovered it. Moreover, names such as ‘Bay of Islands,’ ‘Dangerous
coast,’ are well known in geography. We find a Bay of Islands in New
Holland; and on the east coast of the island of Borneo there is a
‘Côte des Herbages.’”
The sound sense of this reasoning, apart from all question of honour on
the part of a man of the high character of Captain Cook, would seem
conclusive, yet this similarity of the names has, to the editor’s own
knowledge, been remarked upon by persons of high standing and
intelligence in this country, though without any intention of
disparaging Captain Cook, as an evidence that this country was identical
with Australia. The similarity of the expression, “Côte des Herbages,”
with the name of Botany Bay, given to a corresponding part of the coast
by Captain Cook, has been particularly dwelt upon, whereas it ought to
be known that this bay, originally called Stingray, but afterwards
Botany Bay, was not so named on account of the fertility of the soil,
but from the variety of plants new to the science of botany which were
discovered on a soil otherwise rather unpromising. It is plain that
early navigators would assign such a designation as “Côte des Herbages”
to a shore remarkable for its rich growth of grass or other vegetation,
rather than from the appreciation of any curious botanical discovery.
Had the similarity of the names “Rivière de beaucoup d’Isles” and “Côte
dangereuse” with Cook’s “Bay of Isles” and the place “where the
_Endeavour_ struck,” names descriptive of unquestionable realities, been
advanced by Dalrymple as evidence of the high probability that the
country represented on the early map was New Holland, without
volunteering an insinuation against the merit of his rival, we should
have accepted the reasonable suggestion with deference and just
acquiescence.
That New Holland was the country thus represented, became an argument
supported by a variety of reasonings by more than one of our French
neighbours. Mr. Coquebert Montbret, in a memoir printed in No. 81 of the
_Bulletin des Sciences_, 1804, quotes Dalrymple’s injurious observation,
and silently allows it to have its deceptive effect on the mind of the
incautious reader.
The atlas now in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, which, as we
have stated, is probably next in date to that made for the Dauphin, fell
into the possession of Prince Talleyrand at the beginning of this
century, and attracting the attention of the celebrated geographer M.
Barbié du Bocage, drew from him the following notice in the _Magasin
Encyclopédique_, _douzième année_, tom. iv, 1807, which, though lengthy,
bears so directly upon the subject of the present work, that it is here
given in full.
_Extract from the notice of a geographical manuscript belonging to
his Serene Highness the Prince of Benevento_ [better known as
the Prince Talleyrand], _read at a Public Session of the
Institute, on the 3rd of July, 1807, by M. Barbié du Bocage._
This manuscript is an hydrographic atlas, drawn at Dieppe in 1547,
by a person of the name of Nicholas Vallard, of Dieppe, representing
the eastern and western coasts of the continent of New Holland. This
atlas is not the only one upon which these coasts are laid down.
There are two in England, which came from France, and which we have
been made acquainted with by the English as well as by some
Frenchmen. One of the two, which has been for a considerable time in
the library of the British Museum, was drawn in 1542 by a person of
the name of Jean Rotz or Roty, who had in the first instance drawn
it, as he states in the dedication, for the king of France, but
afterwards presented it to Henry VIII, king of England. The second
is a large map on one single sheet of parchment, made for the
Dauphin of France, whose arms it bears. It was formerly in the
library of the earl of Oxford, where Sir Joseph Banks was acquainted
with it, and thence it passed to the British Museum, where it is at
present. The English pretend that none of these charts were
discovered till after the death of the celebrated Captain Cook, and
that they had no knowledge of them when this navigator set sail. But
their prior existence in well-known libraries in England may cause
this assertion to be doubted. But even if they had made use of them
to indicate to their countryman the countries which he had to visit,
it would not the less follow that the skill, the prudence, and the
resolution with which Captain Cook conducted his operations must
always secure for him the glory of having made known in detail the
countries which had hitherto been but faintly indicated.
The third manuscript atlas which represents the coasts of New
Holland, is that of which we have now to treat. It is a small folio
volume, consisting of fifteen hydrographical charts, on vellum,
which has been recently acquired by his serene highness the Prince
of Benevento. This atlas, even by the account of persons who have
seen those which are in England, is the most beautiful of all the
works of the kind, and for this reason deserves the most particular
attention. There has since been discovered in France a fourth, which
is at present in the library of the Dépôt de la Guerre, which was
drawn in 1555 by a person named Guillaume le Testu, a pilot, of
Grasse, in Provence, for Admiral Coligny, to whom it is dedicated,
and whose arms it bears.
The English geographers, MM. Dalrymple, Major Rennell, and
Pinkerton; and among the French, MM. Buache, De la Rochette,
Coquebert de Montbret, and others, recognize on these atlases the
eastern and western coasts of New Holland. These coasts are bounded
by the same latitudes as those indicated on recent maps; and if they
encroach more on longitude it is because, at the time the discovery
was made, there existed but small means of fixing the boundaries in
that respect. The names on all the atlases which we have just
quoted, are, for the most part, in Portuguese, some of them in
French; that of 1542 alone, which is in England, has some of the
names in bad English. We must, therefore, come to the conclusion
that these atlases have been copied from Portuguese maps, and
consequently that the discovery of the continent of New Holland
belongs to the Portuguese. This is the opinion of MM. Dalrymple,
Pinkerton, De la Rochette, and several others; and I do not believe
that any good reason can be alleged in refutation of an opinion so
well founded.
All these atlases call this continent “Great Java”, in
contradistinction to the island of Java, which is to the north of
it; yet it is very singular that no mention whatever is made of this
country in the voyages of the time. As, however, I think I have
detected from history the period at which it must have been made, I
shall now endeavour to explain why the Portuguese have kept this
discovery a secret. I shall then fix the period at which I presume
it to have been made, and will shew how the knowledge of this
country has been lost even by those who have discovered it.
The most ancient of the atlases which represent the coasts of New
Holland, is that of Rotz or Roty, which is in England, and which
bears the date of 1542. The discovery of New Holland, therefore, is
anterior to the year 1542. At that period the Portuguese were
masters of the Molucca Islands, which they had discovered in 1511,
and where they had established themselves in 1512, and in one of
which, Ternate, they had built a fort in 1522. They must have
discovered New Holland after the Moluccas, and therefore this
discovery must be limited to the period between the years 1512 and
1542.
Now, after 1516 or 1517, Spain began to dispute with Portugal the
possession of the Moluccas, as being situated within the hemisphere
which had been allotted to them by the bull of pope Alexander VI,
dated the 4th of July, 1493. This pope, in consequence of the
disputes which had arisen between the courts of Lisbon and Toledo,
had arranged that all the discoveries which might be made on the
globe to the east of a meridian one hundred leagues west of the
Azores and Cape Verde Islands (which he seemed to think lay under
the same meridian), for the space of a hundred and eighty degrees of
longitude, should belong to the Portuguese; and that those to the
westward of the same meridian, for the same space, should belong to
the Spaniards. This division has been since called the line of
demarcation of Pope Alexander VI. Don John II, however, who was then
king of Portugal, being dissatisfied with this bull, which seemed to
deprive him of considerable possessions in the west, made another
arrangement in the following year with Isabella and Ferdinand of
Spain, by which this line was pushed further west, and definitely
fixed at three hundred and seventy leagues to the westward of the
Cape Verde Islands. This agreement was signed the 4th of June, 1494;
and it was arranged that, in the space of ten months, persons should
be sent out who were well informed in geography, to fix exactly the
places through which this line should pass.
This engagement once entered upon, no more consideration was given
to the sending out competent persons to the places indicated, and
the two governments continued their discoveries, each on its own
behalf. Under the guidance of Cabral, the Portuguese, on the 9th of
March, 1500, discovered Brazil, which lay in their own hemisphere.
Under the guidance of Vincent Yanez Pinzon, the Spaniards had in
this same or preceding year, sailed along the whole of this coast as
far as the embouchure of the Oronoco. After this time the line,
without further examination, was reckoned to pass by the mouth of
the Marañon, or river of the Amazons, which had been already
explored, and it is in this part that it is found traced on the
Spanish maps of Herrera. The Portuguese, while they took possession
of Brazil, continued their discoveries towards the east, and reached
the Moluccas, where they established themselves, as we have said, in
1512. The proprietorship of the spices which the possession of these
islands gave them, produced such considerable profits, that it soon
excited the jealousy of the Spaniards. The latter pretended that the
Moluccas were in the hemisphere which had been allotted to them.
This idea was particularly suggested to them by Magellan, who, being
discontented with the treatment of king Emanuel, in having refused
him an increase of allowance, took refuge about the year 1516 in
Spain, and offered his services to the government of Charles V. Not
only did he assert that the hemisphere belonging to the Spaniards
comprised the Moluccas, but also the islands of Java and Sumatra,
and a part of the Malay peninsula. In fact, from the difficulty
which then existed in determining longitudes, the discoveries of the
Portuguese appeared to appropriate more than one hundred and eighty
degrees in this direction, so great was the amount of space given to
them in their maps: nevertheless, if we examine modern maps we shall
see that, measuring from the mouth of the Marañon, the Moluccas
still came within the hemisphere of the Portuguese.
Cardinal Ximenes, who at that time governed Spain in the absence of
Charles V., at the outset received Magellan very well, and Charles
V. himself afterwards entrusted him with the command of a squadron
of five vessels, which, as we know, sailed from San Lucar on the
20th of September, 1519, on a western passage in search of the Spice
Islands or Moluccas. Two of the vessels of this fleet arrived on the
8th of November, 1521, at the island of Tidore, after having passed
through the straits since called the Straits of Magellan. That
navigator was now no more; he had been killed in one of the islands
of the archipelago of St. Lazaro, since called the Philippines, and
nearly all his squadron having been destroyed, one vessel only,
named the _Victoria_, returned to Europe, with eighteen persons, all
very sick, under the guidance of Sebastian del Cano, who landed on
the 6th of September, 1522, at the same port of San Lucar de
Barrameda, from which the fleet had set sail three years before.
Whether it was from policy, or because the currents which exist in
the Great Pacific Ocean had carried Magellan’s fleet rapidly down to
the Philippines and Moluccas, those who returned from this
expedition always maintained that these latter islands were in the
hemisphere of the Spaniards, who consequently laid claim to traffic
there. They were even on the point of sending out a new expedition
thither, when king John III begged Charles V to have the question
examined by competent persons, and promised to acquiesce in their
decision. The two governments appointed twenty-four, or even a
greater number, both Spaniards and Portuguese, well skilled in
geography and navigation, who from the commencement of March 1524,
met alternately in the two cities of Badajos and Elvas, on the
frontiers of the two states. Three months were allowed them to
decide definitely to whom these islands belonged.
These commissioners, among whom was Sebastian del Cano, who had
brought back the _Victoria_, consumed at the outset a considerable
time in consulting globes and charts, and in comparing the journals
of pilots. They examined the distance between the Moluccas and the
line of demarcation. They disputed much, and came to no conclusion.
More than two months passed away in this manner; and they reached
the latter part of May, which had been fixed as the term of the
conferences.
The Spanish commissioners then settled the line of demarcation at
three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, as
it had been fixed in 1494; and as, on the basis of the charts which
they had then before them, they made the opposite line, which was to
be at the distance of a hundred and eighty degrees, pass through the
Malay peninsula, they included in their own hemisphere not only the
Moluccas, but also the islands of Java and Borneo, part of Sumatra,
the coast of China, and part of the Malay peninsula itself. The
Portuguese did not agree to this limitation, which was too
disadvantageous for themselves; on the contrary, they went away very
discontented, storming, and threatning war, which gave occasion to
the jocose observation of Peter Martyr of Anghiera, a talented man,
at that time the historiographer of the court of Spain, that the
commissioners, after having well syllogized, concluded by being
unable to decide the question except by cannon balls.
In spite of the unsuccessful issue of this negociation, the two
courts did not come to a quarrel; they were on the point of forming
alliances. The question of the marriage of the Infanta Catherine,
the emperor’s sister, with king John, which was celebrated in 1525,
was being then entertained. In the following year, 1526, the emperor
espoused, with great pomp, Isabella, king John’s sister. Charles V,
however, believing himself in the right, continued to permit his
subjects to carry on commerce with the Spice Islands; and he himself
fitted out fleets to dispute the possession of them with the
Portuguese. Some of these vessels landed at the Moluccas in 1527 and
1528; but, as these expeditions were generally unsuccessful, and as,
moreover, he was in need of money for his coronation in Italy, he
listened to the proposals of king John to purchase his right to
these islands. He parted with them by a secret treaty, which was
signed at Saragossa the 22nd of April, 1529, for the sum, it is
said, of 350,000 golden ducats, against the expressed wish of his
subjects, who often, but in vain, besought him to retract it. By his
refusal, it was thought that he had received much more. Thenceforth
the Spaniards were not permitted to traffic with the Moluccas.
This termination of the quarrel on the part of Portugal was a
justification of the claims of the Spaniards, and an acknowledgment
in some sort that the Moluccas were in their hemisphere. After such
an arrangement, the Portuguese could not show any discoveries made
to the eastward, or even under the meridian of these islands. The
greatest part of New Holland is more to the east than the Moluccas;
hence it is to be believed that for this reason the Portuguese have
kept silence respecting their discovery of it.
This discovery, as we have said, must be comprised between the years
1512 and 1542. There is, however, no mention made of it in the
voyages of the time, which would sufficiently prove that the
Portuguese had suppressed, or at least concealed, the account of it.
But I propose to endeavour to supply this defect from the narrative
of two of their historians.
Castanheda, a Portuguese author, who had been in India, tells us
that in the beginning of July, 1525, the Portuguese of Ternate, one
of the Moluccas, dispatched a vessel to the island of Celebes to
traffic there; that this vessel on its return was driven by violent
winds and currents into an open sea, between the Straits of Magellan
and the Moluccas; that the Portuguese found themselves thrown more
than three hundred leagues out of their route, and were several
times nearly lost. One night their rudder was carried away, and they
beat about till the morning, when they discovered an island thirty
leagues in circumference, on which they landed, with thanks to God
for affording them this asylum. The islanders gave them an excellent
reception; they were of a tawny colour, but well made and good
looking, both men and women. The men had long black beards. The
Portuguese remained four months in this island, not only for the
purpose of refitting, but because the winds were contrary for the
return to the Moluccas. At length they departed, and reached Ternate
on the 20th of January, 1526.