Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/189

 A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 89 favour of the old term Terra Australis. That he did so, 1787 and after mature consideration of the matter, is clear from his own words : — It is necessary to geographical precision that so soon as New The ancient Holland and New South Wales were known to form one land, Sd^tod by there should be a general name applicable to the whole ; and this ^*°<*®^ essential point having been established in the present voyage with a degree of certainty sufficient to authorise the measure, I have, with the concurrence of opinions entitled to deference, ventured upon the re-adoption of the original Terra Australis ; and of this term I shall hereafter make use when speaking of New Holland and New South Wales in a collective sense ; and when using it in the most extended signification, the adjacent isles, including that of Van Diemen's Land, must be understood to be comprehended. This attempt to revive Terra Australis as the designation Disappear of the continent was not destined to succeed ; on the con- Terra trary, the name seems to have wholly disappeared at the very time when it was expected to become popular again. It might be supposed that a practical seaman like Flinders would have been the last to adopt a suggestion which could only find favour among the pedantic geographers of hi& day, whose attention was concentrated on the mere history of discovery in the South Sea. Historical continuity was no doubt in favour of the old classical phrase; but as soon as the navigation of the Pacific became a mercantile specu- lation rather than a voyage of discovery, the question of terminology had to be settled by shipowners and their cap- tains, whose necessities would require a more appropriate name than either Terra Australis or New Holland. The admirable charts constructed by Flinders of course super- Fiinden'a seded the old ones, from which geographers and navigators alike had previously derived their information respecting the Great South Land. Each of his charts was entitled — " Chart of Terra Australis,^* excepting the preliminary one, which, as already mentioned, was termed — " General Chart of Terra Australis, or Australia." The Narrative of his Voyage, too, was described on the title-page of his work as Digitized by Google