Marco Polo speaks of them in his voyage round the world,
undertaken in 1271, and both Spanish and Dutch explorers refer to them
in the accounts of their travels of more recent date.
In "The Discovery of Australia" (a critical documentary and historic
investigation concerning the priority of discovery in Australasia by
Europeans before the arrival of Lieutenant James Cook in the Endeavour
in the year 1770), by George Collingridge, may be found accounts of
Spanish and Portuguese attempts at settlement upon the Great Southern
Continent--'Terra Australis'.
Staten Land was the name first given to New Zealand in honour of the
States of Holland, and the monstrous birds seen there were probably the
now extinct moa. The Cannibal Islands are doubtless Fiji. The data and
references to chronicles in this work are genuine, and the result of a
careful study of rare and (in some cases) unique books and manuscripts
in the Mitchell Wing of the Public Library at Sydney, said to be the
most comprehensive collection known of accounts of discoveries in South
Seas.
G. F.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. I FALL INTO CAPTIVITY
II. THE BLACK CANNIBALS OF NEW HOLLAND
III.
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