Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/14

 X PREFACE, information upon it. When we inquire into any subject, the first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated of it. This leads us to look at catalogues, and the backs of books in libraries.^^ The force of this remark will be appreciated by every one who has paid any attention to the history of this country. To know what books have treated of it, from the earliest times to the present day, is an essential preliminary to the study ; but hitherto the bibliography of the subject has been left almost untouched. The present attempt being the first of the kind that has been made here, the result cannot pretend to be complete ; like the rest of the work, it has had to contend with very adverse conditions as regards time and materials. Before such a cata- logue can be made, it would be necessary to search the public libraries of Holland, Prance, Spain, and Portugal, as well as those of England; because there can be no doubt that many publications relating to this part of the world — from the first indications of its existonce down to recent periods — have appeared from time to time in those countries, of which at present we know nothing. It is much to be wished that some effort should be made for the purpose of obtaining as complete a collection of those publications as can now be made; and also that the Dutch, French, Spanish, and Portuguese archives should be carefully searched for the purpose of procuring authentic copies of all State papers relating to this country. It is not until these materials shall have been obtained that we can hope to arrive at any satisfactory conclusions with respect to the only portion of our history that still remains buried in obscurity. By a remarkable fatality, almost every writer who has had to deal with the past ages of Australia has felt impelled to begin with an account of the early voyages of discovery — on much the same principle that historians of old used to commence with the creation of the world. To deal with the subject of discovery, in the darkness which still surrounds it, is hardly a less difficult task than that of the learned Burgomaster Witsen, when he under- took to write on the Migrations of Mankind. We have only to recall the various theories with respect to the question of Digitized by Google