Mapping The North: A Prelude starts from the premise that some ancient Greeks had a reasonably accurate idea of the size of the Earth. They also realised that their oikoumene 1 occupied less than half of one hemisphere.
So we start with, effectively, around one-quarter of the globe illuminated. Everything else is obscured by what some computer games characterise as the fog of war,
Perceptions and Misconceptions explores what Europeans thought might lie underneath that fog.
Pre-European Contacts investigates possible visits to Australia's shores before European travellers entered 'the neighbourhood'. Information derived from such visits shaped the expectations of the European travellers who approached these shores.
Europeans Head Outwards traces the history of European exploration as Portuguese, Spanish, English, French and Dutch travellers moved into previously uncharted waters.
The Portuguese Question examines the circumstantial case for a Portuguese "discovery" of Australia in the first quarter of the sixteenth century.
Spanish, English and Dutch Approaches and French Interest brings European travellers from the respective nations into the waters around Australia.
In Five Voyages, I examine the expeditions that delivered an outline of North Queensland's coastline. In the process, they contributed to (and, in Cook's case, practically completed) the outline of the Australian continent.
Here, in the Prelude are the contexts in which they sailed.
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1 The world they knew, rather than the world as a whole.