AUSTRALIA'S DISCOVERERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 88, 4 October 1911, Page 4

AUSTRALIA'S DISCOVERERS.

Mr. Lawrence Tiargrave's theory of a Spanish discovery of the cast coast of Australia, which has been discounted bv the failure of the New South Wales Lands Department to find records corroborating the evidence on which the claim is based, is discussed by Mr. James H. Watson in a letter to 'the Sydney Morning Herald. Mr. Hargrave lias endeavored to prove that a Spanish galleon was careened on Point Piper 31G years ago and that her crew left carvings on the rocks there as well as Boiuli and near Deewh.v Lagoon, and that the Spaniards lost one of their ships near Port Curtis. Mr. Watson states that careful investigation has convinced him that the carvings at Point Piper were done just about a century ago by convicts employed by Captain Piper in building his house. The carvings on the Boiuli clilTs, representing two ships, appeared to have been done at different periods, and the marks at Deewhy are "hardly worth consideration." since" similar appearances in rocks are to be found all round Sydney. Having disposed of ■the evidence associated with the neighborhood of Sydney, Mr. Watson refers to the weather-beaten hull on the beach at Facing Island, off Port Curtis. He recapitulates the .statements made by officers of the Lands Department to the effect that 110 mention is made of the wreck in the numerous official reports of men who visited Port Curtis and Facing Island between 1800 and 19.(0. He adds that the schooner Sable Chief was lost on the island in ISoG, but went to pieces and disappeared entirely. Her captain walked across the island and along the coast for miles, but apparently saw nothing of an earlier wreck. It was reported some years ago that the baripie Prince I?cgent was condemned in ISOO and beached at Facing Island. This was the vessel which was built for fieorge IV., and after she had been bioken up a cannon was found among the remains. This, Mr. \Vatson thinks 7 , was the cannon supposed by Mr. Harjriuve to have belonged to Spaniards. The evidence seems to be against Mr. Ilargrave's theory, and a fascinating problem still offers attractions to students of historv.