Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/192

 92 AUSTRALIA 1787 The word Australia not in use in Phillip's time. Ck)ok'8 chart it may have appeared ; but undoubtedly the pubKcation in 1814 of the chart in which Flinders distinctly gave this name to the continent, may be said to have been mainly instrumental in fixing its place finally in our geography.* As there is no reason for supposing that the name Aus- tralia came into general use before 1820, it is clear that in Phillip's days it was to all intents and purposes unknown. New South Wales for the territory he was sent to govern, and New Holland for the rest of the continent, were the only names with which he could have been acquainted. Even if we suppose that he had met with the word Australia in Dalrymple^s pages, he could nojb olBBlcially recognise any other names than those which he found on the charts which had been placed in his hands. Practically there was but one chart — that which had been constructed by Captain Cook while exploring the eastern coast from Point Hicks to Cape York. The rest of the continent was known only through the imperfect charts which had been made up from the voyages of the Dutch navigators and Dampier. How imperfect those charts were may be seen at a glance by • "In a despatch to Lord Bathurst, of AprU 4th, 1817, Governor Macquarie acknowledges the receipt of Captain Flinders' charts of 'Australia.* This is the first time that the name of Australia appears to have been officially employed. The Governor underlines the word. He states th&t it was in pursuance of his lordship^s despatch of April 18th, 1816, that the expedi- tion for prosecuting the discoveries recently made to the westward of the Blue Mountains had been fitted out ; and, in a private letter to Mr. Secre- tary Goulbum, M.P., of December 21st, 1817, says, speakins of the ex- pedition which had sailed that very morning for the west coast of Australia : — Lieutenant King expects to be absent from Port Jackson between ei^ht and nine months ; and, I trust, in that time, will be able to make very im- portant additions to the geographical knowledge already acc^uired of the continent of Australia; which, I hope, will be the name given to this country in future, instead of the very erroneous and misapplied name hitherto given to it of New Holland, which, properly speakm^, only applies to part of this immense continent." — Labilliere's Early History of Victoria, p. 184. The natives of Australia are referred to by de Brosses, Histoire, p. 17, as lea Australiens ; but he does not apply the name to the country. So also in a French work of fiction — Les AvaiUures de Jacques Sadeur, published in Geneva in 1676— the savaces are described as les AustrcUiens, but the corresponding name is not applied to the country ; although in the English translation it is applied. T nis work, which was published in 1693, ap- pears to be the second English publication in which the name Australia can be found. In Callander's ranslation, from de Brosses, of ** Gonneville*a Digitized by Google