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[Page 5]
has had so large a share in their discovery, that New Holland should embrace the whole; as it would be to the Dutch, that New South Wales should be so extended
It was not until after Tasman's second voyage, in 1644, that the general name Terra Australis, or Great South Land, was made to give place to the new term of New Holland; and it was then applied only to the parts lying westward of a meridian line, passing through Arnhem's Land on the north, and near the Isles St. Peter and St. Francis, on the south: All to the eastward, including the shores of the Gulph of Carpentaria, still remained Terra Australis. This appears from a chart published by Thevenot in 1663; which, he says, "was originally taken from that done in inlaid work, upon the pavement of the new Stadt-House at Amsterdam."*
It is necessary, however, to geographical precision, that the whole of this great body of land should be distinguished by one general term; and, under the circumstances of the discovery of the different parts, the original Terra Australis has been judged the most proper. Of this term, therefore, we shall hereafter make use, when speaking of New Holland and New South Wales, in a collective sense; and when using it in an extensive signification, the adjacent isles, including that of Van Diemen, must be understood to be comprehended.
In dividing New Holland from New South Wales, we have been guided by the British patent to the first governor of the new colony at Port Jackson. In this patent, a meridian, nearly corresponding to the antient line of separation between New Holland and Terra Australis, has been made the western limit of New South Wales; and is fixed _________________________________________________________________________________________
* "La carte que l'on a mise icy, tire sa première origine de celle que l'on a fait tailler de piéces rapportées, sur le pavé de la nouvelle Maison - de - Ville d'Amsterdam".
"Relations de divers voyages curieux." Avis