Did the Portuguese discover Australia?

A manuscript from the 16th century could indicate that Portuguese explorers were in Australia before the first recorded European landing in 1606.

The document contains the drawing of what appears to be a small kangaroo or a wallaby placed into the letter “D”.

Researchers believe that if it is a kangaroo, the suggestion is that explorers from Portugal may have been the first Europeans in Australia.  That credit has been given to the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon who arrived there in 1606.

Also in the text is the image of two half-naked men wearing crowns of leaves, which researchers believe may represent Australian aborigines.

The manuscript contains text and music for a religious procession and is thought to date from between 1580 and 1620.

It was acquired recently by Les Enluminures Gallery in New York which specialises in manuscripts and miniatures from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  It valued the work at US$15,000.

Previously, it was in the possession of a rare book dealer in Portugal.

While the New York gallery may be optimistic that the drawing means that explorers brought back tales of exotic animals and people, others argue that the manuscript could date from after Janszoon’s arrival, have been inspired by a Portuguese landing in Papua in 1526, or be another animal from southeast Asia.

Australian historian John Gascoigne told the Sydney Morning Herald that proving that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in Australia would be ''forever difficult to document because of their secrecy and because so many of the records were destroyed in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755''.

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