DESLIENS' MAP.
His is another planisphere, of the same school of map-makers.
I give it here in its entirety, in order to show how the Australian
portion stands, in all these maps, with reference to other countries.
It will be observed that, for accuracy, Australia compares favorably
with, for instance, North America, named on this map, La Nouvelle France.
Besides its beautiful execution there is nothing to call for special
notice unless it be that three Portuguese flags are shown as flying over
Australian shores, a sure sign of annexation. The map-maker's name,
_Nicolas Desliens_, date 1566, and Dieppe, the place where the map was
made, are marked on a scroll right across the fictitious portion of
Java-la-Grande.
In this short chapter, before leaving the subject of the old manuscript
maps of Australia, and devoting the remaining pages of my book to actual
voyages of discovery, I shall refer once more to the importance of the
Lusitano-Spanish planispheres of the Dieppese school of cartography*
because most of those documents, becoming the property of French
map-makers, were used in various endeavours which were made to induce
European sovereigns to colonize the Great South Land.
[*Most of these maps were made at Dieppe; all of them were made in the
north of France.]
In the preceding pages I have only described the most important of these
manuscript charts. The following is the list in chronological order of
all the specimens known to exist:--
1. The Dauphin Chart 1530-36
2. N. Valiard's (so-called) 1539-49
3. Jean Roze's 1542
4. The Henri II. (of France) 1546
5. P. Desceliers' 1550
6. G. Le Testu's 1555
7. Desliens' 1566