t
period carefully concealed their knowledge from one another. The proud
Spaniard hated his Portuguese neighbour as a formidable rival in the
race for wealth and fame, and the Dutchman, who now comes on the scene,
was regarded by both as a natural enemy by land or sea.

Magellan in 1520 discovered that the Terra Australis was not joined
to South America, as the old maps had laid down; and we find Frobisher
remarking in 1578 that "Terra Australis seemeth to be a great, firm
land, lying under and about the South Pole, not thoroughly discovered.
It is known at the south side of the Strait of Magellan and is called
Terra del Fuego. It is thought this south land about the pole Antarctic
is far bigger than the north land about the pole Arctic; but whether
it be so or not, we have no certain knowledge, for we have no particular
description thereof, as we have of the land about the North Pole."

[Illustration: AN EARLY MAP OF "TERRA AUSTRALIS," CALLED "JAVA LA
GRANDE" IN ITS SUPPOSED EASTERN PART. From the "Dauphin" map of 1546.
There was then supposed to be a great mainland of Java, separated from
the island of "Java Minor" by a narrow strait. See the copy of the
whole of this map in colour, where it will be seen that the "Terra
Australis" was supposed to stretch from east to west.]

And even one hundred years later the mystery was not cleared up. "This
land about the straits is not perfectly discovered whether it be
continent or islands. Some take it for continent, esteeming that Terra
Australis or the Southern Continent may for the largeness thereof take
a first place in the division of the whole world."

The Spaniards were still masters of the sea, when one Lieutenant Torres
first sailed through the strait dividing Australia from New Guinea,
already discovered in 1527. As second in command, he had sailed from
America under a Spaniard, De Quiros, in 1605, and in the Pacific they
had come across several island groups. Among others they sighted the
island group now known as the New Hebrides. Quiros supposed that this
was the continent for which he was searching, and gave it the name
of "Terra Australis del Espirito Santo." And then a curious thing
happened. "At one hour past midnight," relates Torres in his account
of the voyage, "the _Capitana_ (Quiros' ship) departed without any
notice given us and without making any signal."

After waiting for many days, Torres at last set sail, and, having
discovered that the supposed