8
But yet, again, it may be objected that a country so vaguely and incorrectly laid down may not have been Australia. The answer is equally as indisputable as that which fixes the date. Immediately below the legend in question is another to the following effect: "Terra descuberta pelos Holandeses a que chamaraō, Enduacht, (sic) au Cōcordia" (land discovered by the Dutch, which they called Endracht or Concord). Eendraghtsland, as we all know, was the name given to a large tract on the western coast of Australia, discovered by the Dutch ship the Eendraght, in 1616.
Moreover, if the legend in question were not a genuine copy from a genuine ancient map, how came the modern falsifier to be acquainted with the name of a real cosmographer who lived at Goa at a period which tallies with the state of geographical discovery represented on the map, but none of whose manuscript productions had been put into print at the time when the supposed fictitious map was made or the legend fictitiously inserted?
I think these arguments are conclusive in establishing the legitimacy of the modern copy from the ancient map. As regards the discoverer, Manoel Godinho de Eredia (or rather Heredia, as written by Barbosa Machado and by Figaniere), I find the following work by him; "Historia do Martyrio de Luiz Monteiro Coutinho que padeceo por ordem do Rey Achem Raiamancor no anno de 1588, e dedicada ao illustrissimo D. Aleixo de Menezes, Arcebispo de Braga;" which dedication was dated Goa, 11th