The navigator who discovered the eastern shores of Australia. Who discovered Australia: the history of the discovery of the continent

James Cook was born in 1728 on October 27 in the town of Morton, located in Yorkshire. At the age of 18, while working in a grocery store, he suddenly became interested in sea travel. Cook entered as a cabin boy on a dry cargo ship that transports coal. And 20 years later, he was entrusted with managing a scientific expedition to pacific ocean.

In 1770, the clumsy and heavy ship Endeavor stopped in the waters of one bay. Among the members of the Cook team who went in search of the unknown southern mainland, in other words, Australia, was the scientist - botanist of the Royal Society Joseph Banks. Who was so struck by the picture that seemed to him of plants, until then unknown to science, that he was able to persuade Cook to rename the already named bay. Since then, it has become known as Botanical.

It must be said that an expedition with such a number of scientists on board was sent to the Pacific Ocean for the first time. In addition to Banks, there were also naturalists from Sweden Spering and Solander, 2 artists, with assistants - a total of 11 people on board the ship. In addition, Cook himself was an excellent astronomer and cartographer. The main reason for the expedition was just the observation from Tahiti of how Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun.

The Endeavor sailed from Plymouth in 1768. The following year, in June, he reaches Tahiti, where the observation of the planets took place. It seems that the task is completed, but Cook had a secret package instructing him to sail further south. There, the expedition team was supposed to search for hitherto unknown southern land.

In search of the mainland, James Cook brought the Endeavor to the coast of New Zealand, which was discovered by Abel Tasman back in 1642. As in the case of the Dutch researcher, the reaction of the local Maori population was extremely unfriendly. However, the British were ready for this hostile reception, among the expedition there were no losses, but several islanders were still killed during the skirmish. Cook decided to carefully explore the coast of New Zealand. As a result of a four-month study near north island and seven weeks near the South appeared an accurate map of this continent.

On April 1, 1770, the Endeavor departed from New Zealand and headed for New Holland. A month later, the ship reached the bay, which soon became known as Botany Bay. In the ship's log, Cook defined this land as pleasant to the eye, rather calm and varied. The Endeavor lay in the harbor for eight days. Joseph Banks during this time made many descriptions of new plant species, as well as the nature local residents, which he could not attribute to either Negroes or Polynesians. The natives were at first hostile to the travelers, but a few shots fired into the air calmed them down. Then there were no disagreements with the indigenous people.

A couple of kilometers from Botany Bay, Cook found a large natural passage to the huge harbor - Port Jackson. In the report, he described it as a good place for the parking of many ships. The report was not forgotten, and many years later the first city, Sydney, was founded here.

Then it took Cook four months to sail up to the top of the Gulf of Carpenter, to a place called New Holland. The traveler draws up an accurate map of the coast of the future Australia. A dozen new names appear - bays, harbors, capes, bays, receiving new English names. The kings and ministers, lords, provinces and cities of Britain all acquire Australian counterparts.

After not very successfully passing a large barrier reef, the ship, in the end, reaches the northern edge of Australia. More than once, Endeavor was on the verge of death, but the experience of the team and the captain helped to prevent serious problems. Only once luck turned away from the discoverers. On June 17, the ship hit a reef and almost drowned. This event took place near the city of Cooktown. Repair of the ship took seven weeks. And today this place, in memory of past events, is called Cape Tribulation, which translates as Cape of Misfortune. It is famous all over the world for its forest. This is the only place on earth where the "Rhine Forest" goes into the ocean. The rainforest grows its roots from the reefs.

In "" 1770 on August 22, James Cook, on behalf of George 3, proclaims the land he solemnly explored as the property of Britain and calls it New South Wales. This name probably came from the fact that the area here reminded the traveler of the coast of Glamorgan in South Wales. With a proud sense of duty, Cook sent the Endeavor to Batavia, and then to Great Britain, where he was expected by universal recognition, an audience with the king and promotion. On July 13, 1771, the ship reaches Plymouth.

Surprisingly, Cook was unable to find fresh water in New South Wales. Most likely, because the researcher did not go deep into the mainland. However, this was an occasion to write in the report that he made when he returned to Great Britain that this territory was uninhabitable. It was a rare case when the traveler made a mistake. Fresh water was, but it fell to another person to find it. This was done by Arthur Philip, the captain of the first fleet, who came here with the prisoners after 18 years.

Cape Tribulation QLD, Australia

50 thousand years before its discovery by European navigators. In waterless deserts, in tropical jungles and on the coastal plains of this continent, people have lived for centuries with their rich traditions of culture, religion and original lifestyle. By the time the discovery of Australia by James Cook took place, the indigenous population of the continent numbered over 300 thousand people who spoke 500 languages. And now Australia, the discovery of the mainland of which took place twice before the world understood all its significance for the world economy and culture, continues to open the mysteries of its thousand-year history.

Discovery history

The discovery of Australia is the result of centuries of searching by the Portuguese, Dutch and British southern country(terra australis incognita). In 2006, archaeologists discovered ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in Australia, which gave rise to the hypothesis among some scientists that the Egyptians were the first to discover this continent 5,000 years ago.

If you take recent history, then scientists agree that the year of discovery of Australia is 1606. It was in this year that the Dutchman V. Janszon studied the northeastern part of Australia - the Cape York Peninsula.

But the history of the discovery of Australia is a multitude of mysteries that scientists have yet to unravel. So, the cannons found by archaeologists give reason to some researchers to believe that back in the 16th century. the Portuguese visited Australia, but there is no evidence of this in documentary sources yet.

Exploring New Holland

The entire 17th century is the history of the discovery and exploration of Australia by sea travelers from the Netherlands, who first called it New Holland.

After the mentioned Janszon, in 1616 D. Hartog described part west coast continent, in 1623 J. Carstens mapped the western coast of the York Peninsula, and in 1627 the southern coast of the still unknown mainland was explored by F. Theisen and P. Neyts.

The chief ruler of the Netherlands Indies, Anton Van Diemen, in 1642 sent the famous navigator A. Tasman on an expedition, who discovered the land named after Van Diemen (modern Tasman Island). On January 29, 1644, a new expedition set sail, led by Tasman. The expedition proved that New Holland is a separate continent.

For Holland, the discovery of Australia did not seem worthy of much attention, since she already had convenient naval bases in southern Africa and Java, and on the island itself, expensive oriental spices, valued on European markets, did not grow. Nothing also indicated the presence of mineral deposits here; no other animal species were discovered that could arouse interest among the then Europeans.

Exploration of the Australian mainland by the British

More than half a century passed before the work of exploring the mainland after the Dutch was continued by English explorers and travelers. Thus, the expedition of V. Dampier managed to study the northwestern part of Australia in more detail and discover previously unknown islands in this area.

And in 1770, the "next" discovery of Australia took place - this time by James Cook.

After Cook, the discovery and exploration of Australia by the British continued: in 1798 D. Bass discovered the strait between the mainland and the island of Tasmania, in 1797-1803 M. Flinders passed the continent and made a map with more accurate outlines of its southern coast. It was Flinders who proposed in 1814 to change the name "New Holland" to "Australia", and by the 1840s F. King and D. Wicken had completed the study and mapping coastline Australia.

The nineteenth century brought new geographical discoveries Australia by travelers and explorers from different countries, but already within the continent. As a result, the Great Dividing Range appeared on the map of Australia with highest point continent - Mount Kosciuszko; deserts, endless plains, as well as Darling and Murray - the most full-flowing.

A complete map of the British colony, which was Australia, was compiled by British scientists already at the beginning of the 20th century.

James Cook and his contribution to the study of Australia

James Cook was born in 1728 to a North Yorkshire farmer. But not justifying the hopes of his father, he became a cabin boy on the coal miner "Frilav" in 1745. James was fascinated by maritime affairs, and he began to independently study astronomy, algebra, geometry and navigation, and his natural abilities contributed to career growth: already in 1755 he received an offer to take the place of captain on the ship "Friendship". But James decided to enlist in the Royal Navy, where he again began his service as an ordinary sailor. Cook quickly rose to the rank of assistant captain, and already in 1757 he passed the exams for the right to manage the ship on his own.

James Cook

In 1768, Cook went on an expedition that was supposed to observe the passage of Venus through the solar disk, as well as discover new lands for the British crown. It is believed that in 1770, during this round-the-world trip on the ship Endeavor, James Cook discovered Australia. Then he was forced to make a stop on a hitherto unknown mainland due to the resulting hole. Having repaired the ship, Cook sent it along the Great Barrier Reef, opening the hitherto unknown strait between Australia and New Guinea.

But the discovery of Australia did not stop Cook in search of hitherto unexplored lands. Returning to England in 1771, a few years later he again sets sail in search of the southern mainland - the mythical Terra Australis (Antarctica). The conditions of this trip did not allow Cook to reach Antarctica, and upon his return to England, he convinced everyone that the southern mainland simply did not exist.

We present to your attention a chapter from the book "History of Australia" by K.V. Malakhovskiy, published in 1980. The original chapter in the book does not contain any illustrations, so to make the reading more imaginative, we have added a few illustrations. (Note AussieTeller)

Paradoxically, it is a fact that the Australian continent, almost equal in area to the United States of America (without Alaska), was discovered by Europeans later than the small island groups of Oceania. Although the ancient cartographers were sure of the existence of the Southern Land, or Terra Australis.

A 1570 map by Abraham Ortelius showing the Unknown South Land - "Terra Australis Nondum Cognita" - as a large continent at the bottom of the map, as well as the Arctic continent

When the Spaniards established themselves in America, they, excited by the legends of the Incas about the richest land located in the southern part of the Great Ocean, began to send their ships there. The expeditions of A. de Mendanyi in 1567 and 1595, P. de Quiros in 1605 discovered new lands, but not the mainland, but small archipelagos: Solomon and Marquesas Islands, New Hebrides.

Alvaro Mendaña de Neyra (Spanish: Álvaro de Mendaña de Neyra; 1541 – October 18, 1595) was a Spanish navigator. Adelantado.

One of the ships of Kyros, commanded by L. de Torres, on the way back, under the influence of the monsoons, deviated to the southwest and, bypassing the Great Barrier Reef, passed through the strait separating New Guinea from Australia and subsequently named after him.

But the first Europeans to reach the Australian mainland were not the Spaniards or the Portuguese, who dominated during the 15th-16th centuries. in the Pacific, and the Dutch. It happened at the beginning of the 17th century.
By this time, the Dutch and British had done away with the maritime colonial predominance of Portugal and Spain, including in the Pacific. By the beginning of the 70s of the XVI century. Of all the Asian colonies, Goa, Daman and Diu in India and Macau in China remained in the hands of Portugal. The power of Spain in Southeast Asia and Oceania extended by that time only to the Philippines and the islands of Micronesia.

In 1595, the first Dutch expedition to India was organized, consisting of four ships. The Dutch lost half their ships and a third of their crews, but they were convinced that it was possible to reach the shores of India. In 1598, a second expedition (seven vessels) set off for India. It was a great success: all the ships returned with a rich cargo of spices. In the same year, the Dutch gained a foothold on the island of Java, created trading posts there, relying on which they gradually monopolized trade with the countries of South and Southeast Asia, as well as Far East. In 1601, 40 Dutch ships set off for India.
Convinced of the profitability of such enterprises, the Dutch merchants in March 1602 created a company for trade with India - the Dutch East India Trading Company. The company received such rights and privileges that it became a kind of state within a state. She not only traded monopoly with India, but also had the right to appoint officials to this country, wage war and make peace, mint coins, build cities and fortresses, and form colonies. The capital of the company was huge in terms of the scale of that time. If the British East India Company began its activities in 1600 with a capital of 72 thousand pounds. Art., which was equal to 864 thousand guilders, the capital of the Dutch East India Company amounted to 6.6 million guilders.

Willem Janszon is officially considered the first European to reach the coast of Australia on the ship "Duyfken"

From the very first steps of its activity, the Dutch East India Company energetically engaged in the search for the Southern Land. One of the company's ships, led by Captain V. Janszon, rounded New Guinea from the south and reached the coast of Australia near the peninsula now called Cape York. Sailors who landed on the shore in search of water and food were killed by local residents. Janszon hastened to leave these inhospitable shores and in June 1606 returned to Batavia (the modern name is Jakarta).

The logbook of the expedition led by V. Janszon has not been preserved. It is clear that the captain's message about open ground was not inspiring. In the books of the East India Company there is a brief but very expressive entry: "Nothing good can be done there." In the next half century, this phrase was repeated more than once by the leaders of the company.

The Gulf of Carpentaria on a Dutch map from 1859 by Otto Petri of Rotterdam

Dutch sailors began to go to their possessions in Southeast Asia in a slightly different way than the Portuguese and Spaniards, whose ships sailed from the Cape Good Hope along the coast of Africa to the equator, and then to the east. The Dutch took the shorter route. In 1611, Captain H. Brouwer, having traveled 4,000 miles east from the Cape of Good Hope, then turned north, which reduced the time of passage from Holland to Batavia from eighteen months to six.

The directorate of the East India Company in Amsterdam officially approved this course for their ships. This helped the Dutch discover the Southern Continent and explore its western and northwestern coasts. Feedback from Dutch sailors about the new land was discouraging.

In 1623, a Dutch ship under the command of J. Karstenz, following the route of Janszon, entered a large bay on the northern coast of Australia. Karstenz named it the Gulf of Carpentaria, in honor of the then Governor-General of the Netherlands East Indies, P. de Carpenter. In the sailing report, the captain wrote: "We did not see a single fruit-bearing tree, nothing that a person could use for himself ... The inhabitants are pathetic and poor creatures ...".

In 1636, A. Van Diemen became governor-general of Batavia, who sought to expand the Dutch possessions in the South Seas. His determination and perseverance were greatly appreciated and encouraged by the leadership of the Dutch East India Company. On September 16, 1638, the board of directors of the company wrote to Van Diemen: "Your Grace is acting wisely, paying great attention to the discovery of the South Land and gold-bearing islands, which would be very useful to the company." By order of Van Diemen, two ships under the command of Captain A. Tasman left Batavia in August 1642 and set off to explore "the remaining unknown part of the globe."

Sailing southeast from the island of Mauritius, the expedition reached unknown island, which was called Van Diemen's Land (the modern name is Tasmania). Continuing swimming, Tasman approached the shores of New Zealand. He mistook her for the southern mainland. The following year, Tasman explored the northern part of the Australian mainland, but did not find anything attractive there for the East India Company, primarily gold and silver. As a result, the company lost interest in further exploration of the South Seas.

The next European who visited the shores of Australia, or, as they said then, New Holland, was the Englishman W. Dampier.

William Dampier (1651 - March 1715) - English navigator and pirate. Considered one of the most famous pirates in history. He contributed to the study of winds and currents, publishing several books on the subject. Member of the British Royal Society. Portrait painted by Thomas Murray

In the second half of the XVII century. in three naval wars (1652-1654; 1665-1667; 1672-1674), England inflicted crushing defeats on Holland, relegating her to the position of a minor European country. Having become a powerful trading and maritime power of the world, England is firmly established in the Pacific arena.

In January 1688, W. Dampier reached the coast of Australia and stayed there for three months. The following year he was sent a second time to the Southern Continent. This time, Dampier explored the northwestern part of the continent, but the lack of drinking water forced Dampier to stop work and turn the ship to the island of Timor.

Map of part of New Holland - northwestern part of Australia, Sharks Bay, made by William Dampier in 1699

If the Europeans, in fact, knew nothing about Tasman's voyages, since the Dutch East India Company tried to keep them secret, believing that in the future the Dutch might need the lands discovered by him, then Dampier's expeditions to the shores of New Holland became widely known, because The English navigator wrote two books: A New Voyage Around the World and Voyage to New Holland. Both of them were a great success and were reprinted many times. "The inhabitants of this country," Dampier wrote in his book A New Voyage Around the World, "are the most unfortunate people on earth ... they have no houses, clothes ... livestock and fruits of the earth ... and, outwardly resembling human beings, have little different from animals."

The beginning of British colonization in the South Seas was laid by the journey of J. Cook.

Strange as it may sound, the planet Venus played a certain role in the discovery by the British of the eastern shores of Australia and, by the way, New Zealand. The fact is that, according to the calculations of astronomers, on June 3, 1769, Venus should have passed by the solar disk. To better observe the planet, the Royal Society for the Advancement of the Natural Sciences of London asked the British government to send a team of astronomers to the South Seas. Refused, the society turned directly to the king, who approved the plan. The leader of the expedition was J. Cook, who had just returned from Newfoundland. This man was not only an experienced sailor, but also had knowledge of mathematics and astronomy.

The king's decision to send a warship to the Pacific was not dictated by a desire to please the astronomers. This became clear to Cook when, on August 26, 1768, on board a ship sailing along the Thames to Plymouth, he opened a carefully sealed package from the Admiralty. “There is reason to believe,” the order said, “that a continent or land of enormous size is south of the path recently traveled by Captain Wallis on His Majesty’s ship the Dolphin, or from the paths of any other, earlier sailors ... Therefore, you in fulfillment of his majesty's will, you are ordered to set sail ... immediately after the observation of Venus is completed, and be guided by the following instructions.In order to carry out the discovery of the continent mentioned above, you must go south until you reach latitude 40 °, and if, having done this, you will not discover it ... you must continue your search to the west, between the latitude previously mentioned and the latitude of 35 °, until you find it or meet the eastern side of the land discovered by Tasman and now called New Zealand ".

First (red), second (green) and third (blue color) Cook's expedition

The Admiralty ordered further: to explore the coast of New Zealand, to draw a map of the islands, to study minerals, soil, animals and vegetable world, collect samples of seeds and fruits, and also declare the land the property of the British king, having obtained the consent of the local population, and in the event that it is not found, leave "visible signs and inscriptions as discoverers and owners" .

On April 13, 1769, Cook arrived in Tahiti, and on June 3, astronomical observations of Venus were successfully made. Then Cook, following the instructions of the Admiralty, took his ship south in search of the Southern Continent.

On October 7, 1769, N. Jung, the ship's surgeon's servant, was the first to see a white cape among the waves of the ocean. The next day, the ship entered the bay and anchored near the mouth of a small river, on the banks of which the New Zealand city of Gisborne is now located. Local residents - Maori, anticipating evil, met the newcomers with hostility. In the ensuing skirmish, several natives were killed. Cook, like Tasman, was convinced of the courage of the Maori, who were not afraid of either the muskets or the cannons of the Europeans.

Despite the obvious disapproval of the inhabitants, Cook, scrupulously following the instructions of the Admiralty, strengthened the pole with the English flag at the place of his landing and proclaimed New Zealand the property of the British crown. In March 1770, Cook completed his exploration of the coast of New Zealand. In April, his ship entered Australian waters.
On April 19, 1770, the shores of Australia opened up to the eyes of the British. "I called this place Hicks," J. Cook wrote in his diary, "because Lieutenant Hicks was the first to see this land." Cook walked along the coast to the north until he reached the place he named Botany Bay, because the botanists who took part in the expedition found there a large number of previously unknown species of plants, birds and animals.

Botany or Botany Bay (eng. Botany Bay, formerly sometimes Botanist Bay) is a bay of the Tasman Sea off the eastern coast of Australia, 8 km south of the center of Sydney, discovered by James Cook on April 29, 1770. J. Cook named the bay in honor of his friends - explorers and partners in the first round the world trip on the ship Endeavor. These are botanists Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, who studied and described many plants unfamiliar to Europeans on the shores of the bay. They also described animals, primarily marsupials.

On April 29, 1760, the sailors landed on the shore. Local residents showered them with a hail of stones and mines, the British responded with volleys from guns. “Thus,” the modern Australian historian M. Clark sadly notes, “the European began his tragic communication with the natives of the eastern coast.” Until May 6, J. Cook explored the areas of Botany Bay, and then continued his voyage. Leaving north of Cape York, he became convinced that the mainland he had discovered was separated from New Guinea by a strait. J. Cook declared it the property of the British crown. Having landed on the shore of one of the islands in the Torres Strait, called Possession, Cook hoisted the British flag on it and announced that from now on the power of the British sovereign extends to the entire eastern coast of the mainland from 38 ° south latitude to the island of Possession. At these words, the sailors standing next to him fired three volleys from their guns; from the ship they responded with cannon shots. The eastern part of Australia, named New South Wales by Cook, became the property of the British crown.

European navigators, discovering new lands and declaring them the property of their monarchs, did not particularly think about the origin and history of the peoples inhabiting them. They simply stated the fact of the presence of human beings there, who stood at the lowest level in terms of their development. Cook looked at the locals with somewhat different eyes. “At first, when I saw the natives of New Holland,” he wrote, “they impressed me as the most miserable people on earth; but in reality ... they are much happier than Europeans, because they are unfamiliar not only with excesses, but also with the necessary amenities, so common in Europe... They live in a tranquility that is not disturbed by the inequality of situation. Land and sea "supply them with everything necessary for life. They do not dream of splendid houses, domestic servants, etc.; they live in a warm and beautiful climate and enjoy healthy air ... It seems to me that they believe that they have everything necessary for life ".

James Cook declares the eastern third of Australia the property of the British Crown and gives it the name "New South Wales"

Even in the earliest period of European colonization of Australia and Oceania, bourgeois scientists put forward a "theory" about the inferiority of the natives, their organic inability to progressive development, which greatly helped in the "development" of the occupied lands, often associated with the mass destruction of the indigenous population.
In our time, science has data that allow us to assert that the lag in the development of the indigenous inhabitants of Australia before the arrival of Europeans is explained by objective socio-historical conditions. “A comprehensive study of the original culture of the Australian aborigines,” writes Soviet researcher V.R. Kabo, “shows that, in general, despite the preservation of some archaic elements, it has been continuously developing for many millennia. And although the Australians ... had a chance to experience a deep cultural crisis associated mainly with catastrophic changes natural conditions, the development of their culture continued, albeit at a slower pace.

Tasmanian (the last full-blooded Tasmanian - William Lunn or "King Billy" - died March 3, 1869)

As shown by archaeological discoveries in Southeast Asia and Australia in the 50-60s of our century, the settlement of Australia began at least 30 thousand years ago, in the Paleolithic era, when the fifth continent was associated with Southeast Asia continental bridges, the Asian and Australian continental shelves and the straits between them were not an insurmountable obstacle even for people who possessed extremely primitive means of navigation.

The natural geographical conditions that existed at that time favored the development and settlement of the Australian continent by people, including its interior regions, which turned into a desert and semi-desert zone only during the period of thermal maximum, i.e. from 7 thousand to 4 thousand years ago. The drastic change in habitat has led to a significant regression of Australian culture. This was facilitated by the deaf isolation of the Australians from the outside world.

Tasmanian (The last purebred Tasmanian - Truganini - died May 8, 1976)

The arrival of Europeans not only did not contribute to the cultural development of the Australian Aborigines, but, on the contrary, was a new ordeal for them, which can only be compared with a natural disaster of great destructive power. Many thousands of natives were destroyed. The colonialists pushed the indigenous people out of the coastal regions into the desert and thus doomed them to extinction. If by the arrival of the British the total number of aboriginal population reached 300 thousand people, then after two hundred years their number does not exceed 150 thousand, including mestizos.

15.11.2011 - 12:21

For some reason, most people believe in the myth that Australia was discovered at the end of the 18th century by James Cook, who was immediately eaten by the natives, who were upset by this fact. But that's not the case at all. Firstly, Cook died in the Hawaiian Islands, and secondly, Australia was discovered much earlier - the ancient Egyptians visited it!

Australis incognita

Also in Ancient Greece separate opinions appeared that somewhere in the ocean there must be some unknown southern continent. An active propagandist of this idea was Ptolemy, who more than once misled the minds of the gullible ancient Greeks. He drew this continent on his map. Later he came up with beautiful name- Terra australis incognita, an unknown southern land, and under this mysterious name it appeared on maps for many years, exciting the minds of explorers and navigators ....

Many of them tried to find the alluring Terra australis, but all searches remained fruitless. The names of these obscure brave travelers, who set sail at their own peril and risk in unknown places, have sunk into oblivion ... Some of them returned to their homeland, and some died during storms, from skirmishes with the natives. But those who returned brought salted maps with them, on which new lands, islands, archipelagos were marked with a trembling hand. However, Terra australis was never found. Nonetheless, west coast mainland was listed on one map of 1542 under the name of Great Java.

In the Middle Ages, interest in the still undiscovered southern mainland did not fade away. According to the theories then existing, it was believed that a huge continent simply had to be in the Pacific Ocean, otherwise the Earth would inevitably capsize under the exorbitant weight of Europe, Asia and Africa ...

Geographers even made a rough plan of this land. According to their assumptions, Terra australis had an area of ​​​​as much as 180 square kilometers! (which is much larger than the actual size of Australia).

Many reigning persons showed interest in the southern mainland, on which countless treasures simply had to be located.

Expeditions for the glory of kings and queens were equipped, but all attempts to find Terra australis incognita ended in failure.

New Holland

Only at the beginning of the 17th century did the situation change. In 1606, the Spaniard Luis de Torres returned to his homeland with stories about how he saw "the great southern mainland." He passed along New Guinea along the strait, which later received his name. In the same year, the East India Company sent an expedition to explore New Guinea led by the Dutchman Willem Jansson. Accelerated Janszon did not notice the Torres Strait plotted on the map and ended up off the coast of Australia. He took these shores for New Guinea for a long time, and this is probably why his fame as the discoverer of Australia is so modest that few people know about it. Later this land was called New Holland, but no one believed that this was Terra australis incognita.

In Europe, Janszon's discovery caused almost no response. He did not bring stories about diamonds, gold placers, huge pearls and other riches and treasures. His memos and travel maps were kept in archives for a long time, and the world knew little about Jansozon. But it must be admitted that in Soviet encyclopedic dictionaries he always appeared precisely as a researcher who discovered Australia.

However, quite recently, a sensational discovery was made off the coast of the mainland, after which, it is likely that history textbooks will have to be rewritten. In 2002, a shipwreck was discovered near the Australian Fraser Island, covered with a thick layer of sand. Studies have shown that the ship belonged to the Spaniards or the Portuguese, and it arrived on the shores of Australia around 1570, that is, several decades before Janszon!

And more recently, the list of the discoverers of Australia has replenished with one more name. Australian journalist Peter Trickett published his book, in which he claims that back in 1522, Australia was discovered by the little-known Portuguese navigator Cristovao Mendonsa. Trickett bought authentic maps from the early 16th century from a second-hand bookstore, which contain accurate and detailed images of the east coast of Australia, with notation in Portuguese. On them you can see the surroundings and the coastline in the area of ​​Botany Bay in the Tasman Sea. The journalist believes that these maps were compiled after the journey of Cristovao Mendons, which he carried out in 1522!

But, despite these discoveries, millions of people still consider James Cook to be the discoverer of Australia. In 1768, the British Geographical Society sent an expedition led by Cook to the shores of Tahiti. The researchers were to conduct astronomical observations of Venus and, in addition, were instructed to find Terra australis incognita.

In April 1770, Cook approached the east coast of Australia, where he discovered Botany Bay. The explorer sailed on his ship along the entire east coast, named it New South Wales and declared it the property of the British crown. Soon he came across the Great Barrier Reef, where he was wrecked. In 1771 he returned to England victorious - Terra australis incognita was finally discovered! But the mythical treasures were never found, and the British Empire decided to make this place a distant overseas prison...

Egyptians in Australia

The new continent was quickly settled, but in the first decades of the development of the former Terra australis incognita, everyone was not up to its many mysteries. And in Australia there was something to be surprised ...

In 1837, the English geographer George Gray explored the western and south coast mainland. On the banks of the Glenelgu River, he discovered a cave, on the walls of which images of human figures were carved. To Gray's complete amazement, these figures were not at all like natives - strange clothes, aquiline noses, clear profiles ... However, recently versions have been put forward that these are representatives of some highly developed civilization or aliens - they are very unusual look...

But in the 19th century, Gray's find did not make much of an impression, and it was remembered only in the 20th century. In 1931, the same mysterious rock paintings were found, which did not at all resemble the usual art of the natives. A year later, near Lake Mackay, archaeologists found several deep stone wells. Australian aborigines could not build such a structure even in the 20th century, and these wells were clearly of ancient origin.

Each decade brings new mysterious finds. The sensation was the information that in the house of a farmer for several years lay a coin found by him deep in the ground. To the shock of archaeologists, it turned out that the coin was made in Ancient Egypt in the III millennium BC! Later, a pebble was found, absolutely identical to the figures of the Egyptian sacred scarab beetles.

All these findings allowed the English anthropologist professor Grafton Eliot Smith to suggest that the Egyptians visited Australia in ancient times.

This version was also confirmed by the strange custom of some local tribes - they mummified the dead. And more recently, it turned out that eucalyptus oil, made from trees that grow only in the northeast of Australia, was used to embalm some Egyptian mummies.

All these findings made it possible to find the answer to a riddle that had long interested Egyptologists. For a long time they were worried about the question - why on the walls of several Egyptian temples are depicted people who are not like any of the peoples conquered by the Egyptians. Probably, these are the inhabitants of the mysterious Terra australis incognita, the honor of discovering which can now be given to the ancient Egyptians ... However, as we have already said above, supporters of the theory of paleocontacts believe that both Australian rock paintings and ancient Egyptian drawings depict some unknown gods from other planets. ..

Interesting Facts:

In 1642, the governor of the East Indies, Van Diemen, sent out an expedition in search of unexplored lands in the western part of the Pacific Ocean ... The expedition was led by the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman. Three months later, exhausted people reached an unknown land, which Tasman named Van Diemen's land in honor of his patron. Later it turned out that this big Island, which now bears the name of its discoverer - Tasmania. Interestingly, during that voyage, Tasman could have discovered Australia, but bypassed it.

The most urgent for seafarers of the past has always been the issue of food. During a long voyage under the hot sun, almost all food spoiled, and people were forced to eat only breadcrumbs and corned beef for many months. From monotonous and defective food, sailors fell ill with scurvy and other diseases, and died by the dozen. An innovator in the field of equipping expeditions with food was James Cook. He was the first to come up with the idea of ​​taking dried fruits and vegetables on board, and thanks to his diet, Cook's crew never had scurvy while cruising for years...

Another prominent figure in the development of Australia is the Englishman Charles Sturt. In 1827 he arrived on the mainland with a group of convicts. But at the same time he dreamed of discoveries and adventures. A few years later he undertook an expedition inland. It was he who discovered the Darling River, which he named after the governor of the colony. The governor probably liked this one so much that he granted Sturt 2000 hectares of land near modern Canberra. Inspired, Sturt continued his explorations and discovered a desert named in his honor Sturt's Stone Desert.

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His travel journal led many to believe that somewhere west of the southern tip South America there may be a large southern continent (Australia). In 1606, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, a Portuguese captain serving Spain, reached the coast, which he mistook for the continent. Quiros named it "Australia" in honor of the Spanish king, who was also the Grand Duke of Austria. However, in fact, the land discovered by Kyros turned out to be one of the islands of the New Hebrides archipelago.

Discovery of a new continent

At the end of the XVI century. Holland became a powerful maritime power. In 1606, the Dutch captain from Amsterdam, Billem Yangzoon, was the first European to reach Australia. He sailed to the Gulf of Carpentaria off its northern coast. In 1642, another Dutchman, Abel Tasman, saw the island (now Tasmania) and named it Van Diemen's Land - in honor of the manager of the Dutch East India Company, where Tasman served. Then he headed for New Zealand and reached the islands of Tonga and Fiji. After that, the Dutch lost interest in geographical research. Further exploration of Australia resumed only more than a century later.

Captain Cook

James Cook (1728-1779) was born in Yorkshire (England). He was the son of a farmer and received only a primary education at a local school, and at the age of 12 he already went to work: first in a shop, and then in a ship company. In 1756, Cook entered the Navy. He was an outstanding man, with a strong character and a great mind. He became a skilled navigator and astronomer, in 1768 he received the rank of lieutenant and took command on the ship "Endever". The ship "Endever" was built in Whitby (Yorkshire, England) and was intended to transport coal to the ports of the British coast.

Disease control

In the XVIII century. on long voyages, out of every 100 sailors, an average of 60 people died, and 50 of them from various diseases. To reduce the incidence, Cook introduced strict regulations. Crew members had to bathe every day, their clothes and beds were ventilated twice a week, and the entire ship was regularly fumigated with smoke. Cook always took a large supply of fresh fruit with him to prevent scurvy, a disease caused by a lack of vitamin C in the body. Scurvy was perhaps the main cause of high mortality among sailors. He also took care of acquiring fresh meat and vegetables. These measures had a beneficial effect on the health of sailors.

Man and his purpose

Imbued with the scientific ideas of his time, Cook did not miss the opportunity to send his ship to the shores of Tahiti to observe the planet Venus: in 1769 it passed between the Earth and the Sun. Together with Cook, a naturalist, a botanist and two artists participated in the expedition. Cook was carrying a special package with him, which was to be opened only after the observations were completed and described. The package contained a secret order to try to find the fifth continent, with the help of scientists to study its flora and fauna, as well as the life of the native population, and declare these lands the possessions of Great Britain. In April 1769 the expedition reached the island of Tahiti. On June 3, scientists made observations of Venus, and after 10 days the ships continued sailing. Two islanders went along with the expedition as guides to help in the study of small islands. The ships were heading for New Zealand. There, the Maori natives met them with hostility. A real battle broke out: more than a hundred warriors in a canoe attacked the Endever.

Landing on the Continent

In April 1770, the ships entered the bay for east coast Australia, Cook made landfall. He named the Gulf of Bothnia - in memory of the large botanical collection that he managed to collect here. Sailing north along the coast of the continent, the ship came across the reefs of the Great Barrier Reef and was wrecked. After a lengthy repair, the expedition headed home and in July 1771 returned to England.

Cook's last voyages

Cook carried out two more expeditions and made important discoveries. In the first of them he went in July 1772 from Plymouth on two ships. In January 1774, Cook's ships crossed latitude 70, the most southerly latitude hitherto reached by Europeans. The sailors visited Easter Island. In 1778, Cook sailed to the Commonwealth Islands (now - Hawaiian Islands). At first, the Hawaiians mistook him for a god, but very soon became disillusioned with their guests. Cook hastily sailed from Hawaii, but after six days was forced to return, as his ship "Determination" was caught in a storm and was thoroughly battered. A fight broke out, during which Cook was killed.

Settlements on the Continent

In January 1788, a French expedition arrived in Australia under the command of Captain Jean Francois La Perouse. He expected to declare Australia a possession of France, but he was too late: just a day earlier, the British had created their colony on the continent. There are huge stone statues on Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean. Some of them are up to 12 meters high.