On the discovery of the New World, it became a favourite theory with European geographers that there must exist in the Southern Hemisphere a vast continent, which should counterbalance the land of the Northern Hemisphere. Amongst the first-fruits of the discovery by Vasco de Gama of a passage round
the Cape of Good Hope, were a series of expeditions, set on foot by the
leading maritime European nations, in order to investigate the problem,
each vieing with the other in enterprise.
The
existence of such a country, even at this early period, was bej'ond
conjecture; for, previous to De Gama's discovery of the Cape route, a
chart was in existence, which had been
