Prelude: Tracing an Outline
While Six Voyages deliver an outline of The North's coastline, they represent the culmination of three strands of the European exploration of the Southern Hemisphere.
Add the Portuguese and French to those Spanish, Dutch and English navigators, and we have, in effect, an Australocentric history of world exploration.
Starting from the Perceptions and Misconceptions about what might lie south of the Equator, Outward Bound: Europeans carries the narrative to the point where voyagers enter Australia's neighbourhood.
Assuming those voyagers acted on information received, Contacts? focuses on their sources.
From there, The Portuguese Questions, Spanish, English and Dutch approaches lead to the Six Voyages.
