Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/36

xxx trending eastwards, the land of Diemen, if indeed this last should be comprehended under the division we are now describing.

In running along the east coast of this countiy, back towards the Equator, we find the Terra Australis del Hspirihi Santo, discovered by Quiros. But all this vast interval, lying behind Lewin and Quiros' discovery, is so little known that we cannot tell what part of it is land and what is sea. This tract extends from latitude 43 degrees south to latitude 19 degrees, and has not hitherto been visited, at least as far as we know.

The last paragraph shows that Callander, following de Brosses, imagined that the land discovered by de Quiros formed part of the mainland, as shown on the chart. But this error was detected by Cook before he passed out of the reefs into the open sea. How correctly he had judged the matter may be seen from his statement on the 13th August, 1770, when he wrote:—

The islands which were discovered by Quiros, and called Australia del Espiritu Santo, lie in this parallel ; but how far to the eastward cannot now be ascertained : in most charts they are placed in the same longitude with this country which, as appears by the account of his voyage that has been published, he never saw ; for that places his discoveries no less than two and twenty degrees to the eastward of it.

It is worth while to remember that Dampier intended, in 1699, to begin his discoveries "upon the Eastern and least known Side of the Terra Australis." He did not carry out that inten- tion because he was afraid of "compassing the South of America in a very high Latitude in the depth of the Winter there"; and also for another reason which he stated in these words —

For should it be ask'd why at my first making that Shore, I did not coast it to the Southward, and that way try to get round to the East of New Holland and New Guinea; I confess I was not for spending my Time more than was necessary in the higher Latitudes ; as knowing that the Land there could not be so well worth the discovering, as the Parts that lay nearer the Line, and more directly under the Sun.

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