WHO FOUND AUSTRALIA?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 633, 9 April 1929, Page 9

WHO FOUND AUSTRALIA?

HISTORIC DOCUMENT VOYAGE OF DE QUIROS Describing it as sweeping away for ever any romance which might have surrounded the name of de Quiros, the Spanish explore!-, as the discoverer of Australia, Mr. Henry Stevens, F.R.G.S., announces, in a letter to “The Times,” the discovery of an original manuscript concerning do Quiros's voyage. Mr. Stevens says that the existence of the manuscript was hitherto unknown. It was written by an officer who participated in the entire expedition from South America to Manila, and was recently found among a batch of Spanish manuscripts bought by a London firm. “The recovery of this journal when it had been lost for for over 300 years,” says Mr. Stevens, “is perhaps the most fortunate and most important find in the field of maritime discovery made in modern times.” The first part of the journal deals with the subsequent voyage by de Torres to Manila. It is of absorbing interest, and includes the unconscious discovery of the Australian mainland. The latitudes given leave no doubt that the voyagers mistook Cape York for an island. The difficulties of threading the islands and shoals between New Guinea and Australia are described at great length and so graphically that the course can roughly be traced on a modern chart.