The First Discovery of Australia and New Guinea Part 3

JAVE-LA-GRANDE. THE FIRST MAP OF AUSTRALIA.

The maps that I am going to describe in this chapter are beautiful specimens of medieval work; they are, however, somewhat startling, for they reveal, in a most unexpected and sudden manner, nearly the whole of the coasts of Australia discovered, yet, without any narrative of voyage to prepare us for the fact.

They stand alone, therefore, as the most important doc.u.ments. .h.i.therto come to light bearing on the early discovery and mapping of Australia.

They belong to a type of ma.n.u.script Lusitano-French, or Lusitano-Spanish planispheres, which is represented by several specimens, all of which are copies from a prototype which has either been destroyed or has not yet been found.

As the original model, or prototype, is of a date anterior to 1536, they may be considered collectively notwithstanding the apparent later date of some of them.*

[* Desliens' bears the date 1566; see pages 70-71.]

The Australian portion, or Jave-la-Grande, of the oldest one, given here first, is taken from a large chart of the world, on a plane scale, painted on vellum, 8ft. 2in. by 3ft. 10in., highly ornamented with figures, etc., and with the names in French.

At the upper corner, on the left hand, is a shield of the arms of France, with the collar of St. Michael; and on the right, another shield of France and Dauphiny, quarterly. It was probably executed in the time of Francis I. of France, for his son, the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II.; hence, this chart has sometimes been called the "Dauphin Chart."*

[* Another of these planispheres, belonging to the same French School of Cartography, was presented to Henry II. of France. About that time a movement was set on foot for the colonisation of the Great Southern Continent, or Jave-la-Grande. The promotors failed in their endeavours, and one of them went to England with the hopes of better success; he also failed in his efforts, and the great colonising scheme was abandoned.]

This chart formerly belonged to Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford and one of the princ.i.p.al Lords of the Admiralty, after whose death it was taken away by one of his servants. It. was subsequently purchased by Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., and presented by him to the British Museum in 1790.

Copies of this and other maps of 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 ent.i.tled 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 doc.u.mentary 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 Provencal theory to explain certain words which on these old Gallicized charts, were neither Portuguese nor French. The whole subject was in this state of incert.i.tude and confusion, when, a few years ago, having occasion to examine minutely these old doc.u.ments, 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 the Portuguese, whereas the eastern coasts, which fell within the hemisphere allotted to the Spaniards, had been discovered and charted by them.

If we take for granted--and I think we may--that these charts are unquestionably of Portuguese and Spanish origin, the next point of importance that calls for our attention relates to the peculiar configuration, or, to be more precise, the strange distortion which all these specimens have undergone. This distortion is so great that one might fail to recognise Australia within the coast line set down, were it not for the general fitness of the terms used as descriptive of this coast line, terms which have been handed down to us in the course of the geographical evolution, and some of which are recorded in the very maps we use every day.

Moreover, we have the equally important fact that within the lat.i.tudes and longitudes charted, Australia does actually hold its place in the vast ocean around. See map of Australia and Jave-la-Grande compared, given here.

We must make great allowance for the measurement of longitudes as computed in the days when the first circ.u.mnavigators were called upon to determine whether the Moluccas fell within the Spanish or the Portuguese territory, for, after their return, the matter was as unsettled as ever.

Albeit, the errors of these charts are far more suggestive of deliberate distortion than, of inaccurate charting.

In describing Ribero's chart, I made some remark about Spanish distortions. I come now to the Portuguese ones, which refer to this subject.

For instance, the Portuguese, who were the first to make discoveries in these seas, must have been perfectly aware that the coasts they had charted lay more to the east, and if they dragged them out of position and placed them under Java as shown in these maps, it was in order to secure to themselves the lion's share, for their line of demarcation, as fixed by Pope Alexander, did not extend much beyond the east coast of Timor.*

[* A contemporaneous Spanish pilot named Juan Gaetan, of whom we have already heard in connection with the Spanish voyages on the north coast of New Guinea [see pages 25, 26, 28], and who aboard Portuguese ships navigated all the seas to the north of Australia, has put the following remarks on record with reference to Portuguese charts.

He says: "I saw and knew all their charts. They were all cunningly falsified, with longitudes and lat.i.tudes distorted, and land-features drawn in at places and stretched out at others to suit their purposes, etc., etc., and when they found out that I understood their little pranks they made strenuous efforts to get me to enlist in their service, and made me advantageous offers, which, however, I scorned to accept."--In _Ramusio_.]

They could not have believed that Timor was situated to the east of the peninsula, now known as York Peninsula, and clearly shown in these charts, nor that there was not an open sea to the south of Java since the first circ.u.mnavigators, returning to Spain from Timor, with the last ship of Magellan's fleet, sailed through it. (See track of their ship on map of Timor, p. 40.)

But the secret was so well kept, that seventy-eight years after Magellan's voyage round the world, Java and Australia were still believed to be one and the same continent by certain otherwise well-informed navigators, as will be seen by Linschoten's "Discours of Voyages into ye East and West Indies," published in London, in the year 1598, in which the following description, from Portuguese sources, occurs:

"South, south-east, right over against the last point or corner of the Isle of Sumatra, on the south, side of the equinoctial line, lyeth the island called JAUA MAIOR, or Great Java, where there is a strait or narrow pa.s.sage, called the strait of Sunda, of a place so called, lying not far from thence within the Isle of Java. The island beginneth under 7 degrees on the south side, and runneth east and by south 150 miles long; but touching the breadth it is not found, because as yet it is not discovered, nor by the inhabitants themselves well known."

"Some think it to be firme land* and parcel of the countrie called TERRA INCOGNITA, which, being so, should reach from that place to the _Cape de Bova Sperace_ [Cape of Good Hope]; but as [?] it is not certainly known, and, therefore, it is accounted an island."

[* The term implies continental land]

The above pa.s.sage [shows?] that the author was uncertain as to whether Australia, which he calls the Great Java, was connected or not with ANTARCTICA, which he terms TERRA INCOGNITA; and his hesitation may be readily understood when we consider that some maps of the period disconnected Java-la-Grande from the TERRE AUSTRALLE INCOGNEUE; whereas others connected it with Kerguelen and Tierra del Fuego.

THE ILLUMINATIONS.

I shall say a few words now about the illuminations. They form a conspicuous feature in these old maps, and lend a great charm to such productions of a bygone age; it would be a useless task, however, to seek in these quaint devices a strict pourtrayal of the scenes appertaining to the countries they might be supposed to ill.u.s.trate; to do so would be to forget their chief purpose, the decorative. But, allowing for the liberty usually granted to the artist, nay, often exacted by him, the scenes depicted are not borrowed from the realms of "Idealism" to the extent that has been supposed by certain commentators.

The kangaroo is not represented; no, nor the gum-tree either, perhaps!

But that clump of bamboos* on the top of a hill is not a volcano in full eruption, as a learned critic once ventured to a.s.sert.

[* Bamboos are plentiful on the north-western coasts of Australia, planted, no doubt, by Malay fishermen in search of trepang, who from time immemorial frequented those sh.o.r.es.]

We see, on these charts, fairly correct presentments of that animal seen for the first time by the Spaniards in the straits to which Magellan gave his name, and described by the Italian narrator, Pigafetta, who accompanied the first circ.u.mnavigators.

Pigafetta says:-- "This animal has the head and ears of a mule, the body of a camel, the legs of a stag, and the tail of a horse, and like this animal it neighs."

The animal thus described by Pigafetta is the Guanaco, _Camelus huanacus_, and it is not astonishing to find it represented on the Australian continent, for we know* that this continent was supposed to be connected with _Tierra del Fuego_ and was sometimes called _Magellanica_, in consequence. In the chart that I am describing, Australia is called Jave-la-Grande--La Grande Jave would have been the proper French construction; but the term Jave-la-Grande is merely the translation of Java Maior, the Portuguese for Marco Polo's Java Major.

[* See remark above.]

The great Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, described Java from hearsay as being the largest island in the world, and the Portuguese finding this to be incorrect, as far as their knowledge of Java proper was concerned, but finding nevertheless, this "largest island in the world" to the south-east of Java, in fact, approximately in the longitudes and lat.i.tudes described by Polo; the Portuguese, I say, did the best thing they could both for Marco Polo's sake and their own, when they marked it on their charts where it was said to be, and with the name given to it by Polo, for he calls it Java Major to distinguish it from Sumatra, which island he named Java Minor.

The channel or river, marked between Java and Australia, is evidently a concession due to the fact that a pa.s.sage was known to exist. This channel, which is left white in the chart I am describing, is painted over in the specimen dated 1550 [see map pp. 68-69], as though it were blocked, and two men are represented with pick and shovel as in the act of cutting it open.

Curiously enough, in both maps, the upper silhouette of the landscape in this part defines the real south sh.o.r.e of Java.

On the continental part, the Australian Alps, the range of hills on the western and north-western coast, and the great sandy interior of Australia, are also roughly sketched in. Was it all guess-work?