Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/41

SKETCH. xxxiii There is nothing to prove that the chart referred to by Thevenot was authentic ; or that it was designed by geographers j or that it was in any other way entitled to be considered an authority. There is room for doubt on all these points. Burney tells us that Sir Joseph Banks, during his stay at Amsterdam in 1773, ^^was at much pains in making enquiry concerning the Stadt House map ; but he could obtain no proof of the work having been visible within the memory of man."* If no one in Amsterdam had ever heard of it at that time, there can be no certainty that it ever existed, seeing that national records are usually preserved with some care. The idea that the Dutch called the undiscovered portion of the country Terra Australis, as stated by Flinders,- is disposed of by Burney's description of the map : — ^' Eastward on the same land, but without defined limits, is inserted the name Terre Australe, which, being in the French language, was probably an explanatory addition introduced by M. Thevenot himself." Let us now consider the evidence on the other side. In the first place, there is the striking fact that Cook does not speak of the country as Terra Australis, but as New Holland. When considering his route after having explored New Zealand, he said : — " It was therefore resolved that we should return by the West Indies, and that with this view we should, upon leaving the coast [of New Zealand] steer westward till we should fall in with the east coast of New Holland." There can be no doubt that Cook had carefully studied all the published voyages of discovery in the South Pacific ; while the fact that he deter- mined to explore the east coast of New Holland shows that the geography of that country had attracted his attention. Why then should he speak of it as New Holland, if Terra Australis was not only ^Hhe original name," but the one by which it con- tinued to be known in his own time ? In the second place, we have only to consult the authorities of his day to see that he used the name which every one else used. In the charts published by Dalrymple and Callander, it was named New Holland ; and in those of de Brosses, it was marked • Voyages in the South Sea, vol. iii, p. 182. c Digitized by Google