to be doubted. But even if they had made use of them to indicate to their countryman the countries which he had to visit, it would not the less follow that the skill, the prudence, and the resolution with which Captain Cook conducted his operations must always secure for him the glory of having made known in detail the countries which had hitherto been but faintly indicated.
The third manuscript atlas which represents the coasts of New Holland, is that of which we have now to treat. It is a small folio volume, consisting of fifteen hydrographical charts, on vellum, which has been recently acquired by his serene highness the Prince of Benevento. This atlas, even by the account of persons who have seen those which are in England, is the most beautiful of all the works of the kind, and for this reason deserves the most particular attention. There has since been discovered in France a fourth, which is at present in the library of the Dépôt de la Guerre, which was drawn in 1555 by a person named Guillaume le Testu, a pilot, of Grasse, in Provence, for Admiral Coligny, to whom it is dedicated, and whose arms it bears.
The English geographers, MM. Dalrymple, Major Rennell, and Pinkerton; and among the French, MM. Buache, De la Rochette, Coquebert de Montbret, and others, recognize on these atlases the eastern and western coasts of New Holland. These coasts are bounded by the same latitudes as those indicated on recent maps; and if they encroach more on longitude it is because, at the time the discovery was made, there existed but small means of fixing the boundaries in that respect. The names on all the atlases which we have just quoted, are, for the most part, in Portuguese, some of them in French; that of 1542 alone, which is in England, has some of the names in bad English. We must, therefore, come to the conclusion that these atlases have been copied from Portuguese maps, and consequently that the discovery of the continent of New Holland belongs to the Portuguese.
