Page:Early voyages to Terra Australis.djvu/78

 liv peak, is in about 187° (or 163° E. from Greenwich), whereas the easternmost point of Australia is in something less than 154° E. from Greenwich. The difficulty of ascertaining the longitude in those days is well known, and the discoveries which these maps represent were, in all probability, made on a variety of occasions, and had a continuous line given to them on maps, not so much as an exact, but as an approximative guide to subsequent explorers. It were hard indeed, therefore, if sufficient concession were not made to the pioneers of maritime exploration, for the reconciliation of these comparatively and light discrepancies, when inaccuracies as striking are observable in surveys made as late as in the eighteenth century.

Thus in taking a general survey of the outline of this immense country, we have this one striking fact presented to us, that the western side is comprised between exactly the same parallels as the corresponding side of Australia, allowance being made for the conjunction of Java, while the eastern side presents the same characteristic as the eastern side of Australia in being by far the longest.

We now proceed to a more minute examination of the contour of the coasts. It is to be observed that on the north of the Great Java, as shown in all of these manuscript maps which have met the editor's eye, occurs the word "Sumbava,"—a fact which, he thinks, has never been noticed by any writer upon these interesting documents. Here is another instance of the discovery of the north of