Australia and New Guinea to Portugal; whereas the second arrangement
would have limited her possessions at the longitude that separates
Western Australia from her sister States to the east, which States would
have fallen to the lot of Spain. Strange to say, this line of demarcation
still separates Western Australia from South Australia so that those two
States derive their boundary demarcation from Pope Alexander's line.

A few years after the discovery of the New World the Spanish Government
found it necessary, in order to regulate her navigations, and ascertain
what new discoveries were being made, to order the creation of an
official map of the world, in the composition of which the skill and
knowledge of all her pilots and captains were sought.

Curiously enough, as it may appear, there is an open sea where the
Australian continent should be marked on this official map.

Are we to infer that no land had been sighted in that region?

Such a conclusion may be correct, but we must bear in mind that prior to
the year 1529, when this map was made,* the Spaniards had sailed along
250 leagues of the northern shores of an island which they called the
_Island of Gold_, afterwards named New Guinea, and yet there are no signs
of that discovery to be found on the Spanish official map. It is evident,
therefore, that this part of the world could not have been charted up to
date. This is not extraordinary, for it was not uncommon in those days,
nor was it deemed strange that many years should elapse before the
results of an expedition could be known at head-quarters. In order to
realise the nature of the delays and difficulties to be encountered, nay,
the disasters and sufferings to be endured and the determination required
for the distant voyages of the period, we have but to recall the fate of