Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/41

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CAPTAIN COOK. 13 that New Holland and New Guinea are two separate lands or islands, which until this day hath been a doubtful point with geographers," Cook proceeded to New Guinea, having given a heritage to his countrymen beyond the power of a Kaiser to bestow. Modestly chronicling his doings at New Guinea, Savu, Batavia, and the Cape of Good Hope, Cook concluded his narrative by saying that on the 12th June, 1771, **we passed Beachy Head; at noon * we were abreast of Dover;' on the 13th we anchored in the Downs; and soon after I landed in order to repair to London/' The formal act of taking possession of New South Wales produced no immediate results. America was yet English. The baleful stars of Grenville and North had infected the atmosphere of the government, but there might yet have been a lustration. In 1765 the accursed Stamp Act was passed ; doomed to breed strife and hatred between England and her children. But the genius of Chatham, the wisdom of Camden, and the eloquence and vigour of Burke and Barre were arrayed against Grenville and his fatuous majority; and sanguine men might still have hoped that the triumph would be on the side of the wise ; that America would remain a friendly gathering-ground for Englishmen seeking their fortunes in emigration ; that so great a crime as the violent severance of her colonies would not be perpet- rated by English statesmen in the name of England. The Stamp Act was indeed repealed in 1766, but a declaratory Bill was passed which neutralized the effect of the repeal. Before Cook had returned from New South Wales, Lord North was minister, and maintenance of the tea-duties led injustice done to Cook by the jealous hydrographer. It is therefore more incumbent upon the historian to point it out. How little the maps of the sixteenth century could have aided an explorer Mr. Major himself shows. The Dauphin map (1530) is extolled as laying down the east coast of New Zealand But it makes the land continuous from the longitude of New Zealand to Cape York in Australia Moreover, it does not show New Guinea. In one of the maps of the period made at ** Dieppe par Nicolas Desliens, 1566," and preserved at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, the same features occur, and between Java La Grande or Australia (which ia represented as extending far southward of the latitude of Cape Horn), and the Cape of Good Hope, a large island is shown, occupying about seven degrees of longitude and nearly five of latitude. On the principle of omne igiiotum pro magnifico it is appropriately styled " Isle des geantz." Perhaps Swift had an eye upon this map in satirically choosing tiie same place for his Lilliput.