The First Discovery of Australia and New Guinea

The First Discovery of Australia and New Guinea (Large Print Edition): Being the Narrative of Portuguese and Spanish Discoverers
by George Collingridge

«Relevant historical document over the european discovery of Australia..»


This book is an excellent surprise. Being over 100 years old it reveals some relevant facts, today still rarely known, over the discovery of Australia.

Although some doubts still prevail about who were the first europeans to set foot on Australia, it seems more and more accepted as a fact that Cook was not for sure the first european to achieve it.

Between 1511 and 1536 the portuguese draw maps of the big southern island. Although portuguese maps were lost in 1755 when an earthquake and subsequent fire destroyed national archives, copies of this maps made by the french survived to present days. It is thus clear that more than 200 years before Cook reached Australia, the portuguese (and later the spanish) had already sailed the shores of australia. And it is not even surprising since the portuguese were the masters of the seas in the early 16th century and they had already discovered many island in southwest Asia in their search for the Molucas, the spice islands, the most wanted source of economic revenue for the european economy in those days.

The book is mainly factual and easy to read. An interesting document for those who are curious about the discovery of australia, sailing or the history of europe in the 16th/18th centuries.