The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #18706   Message #187966
Posted By: Bob Bolton
02-Mar-00 - 12:56 AM
Thread Name: New Botanical Shanty
Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
G'day Chris,

The story on the Portugese map seems to be that a very old map in an antiquated projection, can be reinterpreted into modern projection and starts to look like much more like the East Coast of Australia. It would date from ~ the 16th century and was a secret British Admiralty document, possibly captured from a Portugese man o' war.

Back when the Pope split up the world and awarded all new discoveries to either Spain or Portugal, the dividing line in the Pacific region included a fair part of what we now know as the East Coast of Australia ... in the Spanish section. The Portugese did some serious politicking and trading to have the division moved ... so that Australia (officially unknown) now fell in their section.

Nothing came of this, presumably because of the rapid decline of Portugal as an exploring maritime nation, but they presumably knew the coast was there and had done some mapping and exploring. There are reports of Portugese and Spanish coins (and even possible wrecked ships) all round Australia but it is hard to judge from minor finds since both nations' currencies had been international standards in the way that the greenback remains today.

Regards,

Bob Bolton