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Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, who explored the East Indies, speaks of a Java Major as well as a Java Minor, and in that he may refer to Australia; but he made no attempt to reach the land. Some old maps fill up the ocean from the East Indies to the South Pole with a vague continent called Terra Australis; but plainly they were only guessing, and did not have any real knowledge.
"The first religious edifice that was ever reared in the great Terra Australis, by voluntary and private exertion." See Lang's Narrative of the Settlement of the Scots' Church in New South Wales, p. 8. The Doctor, in his Presbyterian zeal, had forgotten Mr. Johnson's church.
They were constantly getting entangled by the horns in the hanging vines of the 'Calamus Australis' and 'Flagetlaria', so often referred to. The effect of this on some was to work them into such a perfect fury, that when released by the party cutting them clear, they would in some instances rush blindly away from the herd and be lost, as described before.
"The Australis Terra is the most southern of all lands; it is separated from New Guinea by a narrow strait; its shores are hitherto but little known, since, after one voyage and another, that route has been deserted, and seldom is the country visited unless when sailors are driven there by storms.
G.B. Barton, in an introduction to his valuable Australian history, traces this from 1578, when Frobisher wrote: "Terra Australis seemeth to be a great, firm land, lying under and about the south pole, being in many places a fruitful soil, and is not yet thoroughly discovered, but only seen and touched on the north edge thereof by the travel of the Portiugales and Spaniards in their voyages to their East and West Indies.
Still, in a vague kind of way, the Dutch claim to the western portion of Australia was recognized. In the patent to the first governor at Port Jackson, the western limit of New South Wales is fixed at 13.5 deg. E. longitude, a position approximating to the boundary of New Holland as fixed by the Dutch, whereby the country was divided into New Holland and Terra Australis.
Before the return of Captain Cook to England it was supposed that New Guinea, New Holland, and New Zealand formed one great southern land, denominated Terra Australis Incognita. Though he had proved that these were islands, it was still supposed that there existed a great southern land, which had been seen by a French officer, Captain Bouvet, in 1739.
A certain Cornelius van Sloetten writes, "supported by letters from Amsterdam," how a Dutch ship, driven far out of reckoning in the Southern Ocean, comes to a "fourth island, near Terra Australis Incognita," which is inhabited by white people, speaking English, but mostly naked.
In remembrance of the day of discovery, the cape, which was supposed to be part of the southern continent, was called Cape de la Circoncision. It had been supposed, before the return of Cook from his first voyage, that New Zealand, New Holland, and New Guinea formed part of the great southern land, which was generally denominated Terra Australis Incognita.
They seemed to think the captain wanted him. On examination, he proved to be very slightly hurt, and his wounds were dressed. After leaving the Friendly Islands, the Australis del Esperito Santo of Quiros was reached. Sailing round it, Cook proved it to be an island.
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