Portuguese discovery of Australia.

[Anatol]

The theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia claims that early Portuguese navigators were the first Europeans to sight Australia between 1521 and 1524, well before the arrival of Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606 on board the Duyfken who is generally considered to be the discoverer. This is based on the following elements: The Dieppe maps , a group of 16th-century French world maps, which depict a large landmass between Indonesia and Antarctica . Labelled as Java la Grande , this land mass carries French , Portuguese , and Gallicized Portuguese placenames, and has been interpreted by some as corresponding to Australia's northwestern and eastern coasts. The presence of Portuguese colonies in Southeast Asia from the early 16th century, particularly Portuguese Timor – approximately 650 kilometres from the Australian coast – c. 1513–1516. Various antiquities found on Australian coastlines, claimed to be relics of early Portuguese voyages to Australia.
The development of the theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia owes much to Melbourne lawyer Kenneth McIntyre 's 1977 book,”The Secret Discovery of Australia; Portuguese ventures 200 years before Cook” . McIntyre's book was reprinted in an abridged paperback edition in 1982 and again in 1987.
The appearance of variant but essentially supporting theories in the late 1970s and early 1980s by other writers, including Ian McKiggan and Lawrence Fitzgerald also added credence to the theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia. In 1994, McIntyre expressed pleasure that his theory was gaining acceptance in Australia: The central plank of the theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia suggests the continent called Jave la Grande , which uniquely appears on a series of 16th-century French world maps, the Dieppe school of maps , represents Australia. Speaking in 1982, Kenneth McIntyre described the Dieppe maps as "the only evidence of Portuguese discovery of Eastern Australia". Cristóvão de Mendonça is known from a small number of Portuguese sources, notably the famous Portuguese historian João de Barros in Décadas da Ásia (Decades of Asia), a history of the growth of the Portuguese Empire in India and Asia, published between 1552–1615. [ 46 ] Mendonça appears in Barros' account with instructions to search for the legendary Isles of Gold . However, Mendonça and other Portuguese sailors are then described as assisting with the construction of a fort at Pedir ( Sumatra). McIntyre nominated Cristóvão de Mendonça as the commander of a voyage to Australia c. 1521–1524, one he argued had to be kept secret because of the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas , which divided the undiscovered world into two halves for Portugal and Spain . Barros and other Portuguese sources do not mention a discovery of land that could be Australia, but McIntyre conjectured this was because original documents were lost in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake , [ 48 ] or the official policy of silence. Most proponents of the theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia have supported McIntyre's hypothesis that it was Mendonça who sailed down the eastern Australian coast and provided charts which found their way onto the Dieppe maps, to be included as "Jave la Grande" in the 1540, 1550s and 1560s. McIntyre claimed the maps indicated Mendonça went as far south as Port Fairy. In the 1970s and 1980s, German born linguist Dr. Carl-Georg von Brandenstein, approaching the theory from another perspective, claimed there were 60 words used by Aboriginal people of the Australian north-west that had Portuguese origins. According to McIntyre, the remains of one of Cristóvão de Mendonça 's caravels was discovered in 1836 by a group of shipwrecked whalers while walking along the sand dunes to the nearest settlement, Port Fairy . The men came across the wreck of a ship made of wood that appeared to be mahogany . Between 1836 and 1880, 40 people recorded that they had seen an "ancient" or "Spanish" wreck. Two bronze cannons were found on a small island in Napier Broome Bay, on the coast of Western Australia , in 1916. Since these guns were erroneously thought to be carronades , the small island was named Carronade Island . Kenneth McIntyre believed these cannons gave weight to the theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia.
Portugal1999;350е;SG Ms2699. Source:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_the_Portuguese_discovery_of_Australia