Let the Controversy Begin – Authour Claims Atlas Proves Portuguese Discovered Australia

The mainstream media, including MSNBC and CNN, is running an item today pointing out how the new book, “Beyond Capricorn” by Peter Trickett, claims to prove that a 16th-century maritime map shows that Portuguese adventurers, not the British or the Dutch, were the first Europeans to find Australia.

A 16th-century map from the Vallard Atlas appears to mark geographical sites along Australia’s east coast in Portuguese, although the orientation of part of the map is off. Trickett says this is because the Portuguese charts were misaligned when they were copied but by using a computer, Trickett rotated the southern part of the Vallard map 90 degrees to produce a map which accurately depicts Australia’s east coast.

“They provided stunning proof that Portuguese ships made these daring voyages of discovery in the early 1520s, just a few years after they had sailed north of Australia to reach the Spice Islands — the Moluccas. This was a century before the Dutch and 250 years before Captain Cook,” he said.

Trickett believes the original charts were made by Mendonca who set sail from the Portuguese base at Malacca with four ships on a secret mission to discover Marco Polo’s “Island of Gold” south of Java.

This type of statement always seems to get the heated dialogues (and book sales) up and running, particularly when it finds its way into mainstream media; I doubt this will be an exception. 

[tags]Antique Maps, Australia, Vallard Atlas[/tags]