To close this discussion, it may be added, that in most instances the
early voyages of the Dutch or possibly the Portuguese to Western
Australia were the result of such accidents as befell De Gonneville, as
they were carried by storms out of their course to India or the Sunda
Islands, and thrown on the west coast of the Australian Continent.
The first claim to the discovery of the Australian Continent may be,
therefore, settled in favor of De Gonneville; although, there is little
doubt that the existence of a great southern land was suspected by the
Chinese, and also by the ancients. This great land, situated on the
opposite side of the world, was named by them ANTI-CHTON, and its
supposed inhabitants "Antichtones," and the fact of the possibility of it
being inhabited at all gave rise to a good deal of discussion among
ancient writers. They, however, agreed in the belief that "the fury of
the sun, which burns the intermediate zone," rendered it inaccessible to
the inhabitants of the world. Plinus, Pomponius Mela, Scipio, Virgilius,
Cicero, and Macrobius considered this land as habitable, and the two
last mentioned authors held the opinion that it was inhabited by a
different race of beings.
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