Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/689

 565 BIBLIOGRAPHY of Terra Australis, New Holland, and New South Wales, to the year 1820.* The earliest references to the colonisation of the country formerly known as Terra Austral is, appear in the shape of certain pro- posals made to the British Government in the sixteenth century. Early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the subject of colonies was discussed in England, and papers were laid before her Majesty on the advantages likely to accrue from new discoveries of lands not already taken possession of by the Portuguese, Spaniards, or French, cmd especially of those countries lying beyond the Equinoctial.! A later project, in Secretary Walsingham's handwriting, for estab- lishing a company to trade beyond the Equinoctial line — Drake to be Governor for life — still exists in the Record Olfice. This was prepared in 1580, just after Drake's return home from his voyage round the world. Terra Australis was supposed to reach from the south towards and beyond the tropic of Capricorn, nearly to the Equator, and its coast-line to extend all round the South Pole. It is so delineated on old globes and mappe-mondes (1530-66), and described in an introduction to the account of Frobisher's First Voyage (1578) ; those parts best known lying over against Cabo di Buena Esperanza, whither the Portuguese in their voyages to India had been driven out of their direct course by storms. The only English colonies settled or attempted to be settled in the reigns of Elizabeth and her successor, were those in North America and Guiana. her subjects of all or anie lands, islands and countries southewards beyond the sequinoctial, or when the pole Antartik hathe anie elevation above the Horisen, and which landes, islandes, and countries be not already possessed or subdued by or to the use of any Christian Prince in Europe as by the charts and descriptions shall appere." — Landsdowne M.S., C folio 142-6. 'Oiis manuscript, which is endorsed by Lord Burleigh, A discovery of lands beyond the Equinoctial, 1573, has been printed in the Hakluyt Society's edition of Probisher's Voyages, 1867, pp. 4-8. Digitized by Google
 * "The discoverie, traffique, and enjoyeuge for the Queens Majesty and