Creator Emanual Bowen

Date 1744

Based on Dutch maps depicting Abel Tasman's 1642-44 voyage to Terra Australis, which he named New Holland. This version was published in 1744 by Emanual Bowen, with English commentary, 100 years after the Dutch published Tasman's chart of New Holland...As European competition for colonial expansion, Bowen advanced an optimistic prospectus for the newly discovered Southern Continent, writing: 'It is impossible to conceive a Country that pomises fairer from its Situation, than this 'Terra Australis; no longer incognita, as this Map demonstrates... It lies precisely in the riches Climates of the World...' Bowen reasoned that New Holland would be a land of promise - as evidenced by other lands sharing these latitudes, such as Brazil, Madagascar and New Guinea. It would be 'plentifuly endowed by nature', with 'gold, ivory and other commodities ... Whoever discovers and settles it will become infalliably possessed of Territories as Rich and as frutiful, and as capable of Improvement, as any that have been hither to found out...'

Source: National Library of Australia