Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:

Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia: - A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.

When, at a period comparatively recent in the worlds history, the discovery was made that, on the face of the as yet unmeasured ocean, there existed a western continent which rivalled in extent the world already known, it became a subject of natural enquiry whether a fact of such momentous importance could for so many thousands of years have remained a secret. Nor was the enquiry entirely without response. Amid the obscurity of the past some faint foreshadowings of the great reality appeared to be traceable. The poet with his prophecy, the sage with his mythic lore, and the unlettered seaman who, with curious eye, had peered into the mysteries of the far-stretching Atlantic, had each, as it now appeared, enunciated a problem which at length had met with its solution.[1] In these later days, when the enquiry has assumed gigantic proportions, and the facilities of investigation iihave been simultaneously increased, much has been done towards bringing to light the evidence of various ascertained or possible visitations from the Old World to the New, which had previously remained unknown. A summary of them has already been laid before the members of the Hakluyt Society by the editor of the present volume, in his introduction to the Select Letters of Columbus, and requires no repetition here. Of the future results of that momentous discovery, what human intelligence can foresee the climax? Already the northern half of that vast portion of the iiiglobe is mainly occupied by a section of the Anglo-Saxon family, earnest and active in the development of its native energies; and among these, again, are many who look back with eager curiosity to every yet minuter particular respecting the early history of their adopted country. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 58933
Author: Major, Richard Henry
Release Date: Feb 22, 2019
Format: eBook
Language: English