“Is Australia a big place?” inquired Robert.
“Australia, my boy, is about as large as four-fifths of Europe. It has somewhere about 775,000 HECTARES.”
“Yes, McNabbs, almost to a yard’s breadth. Don’t you think now it has a right to be called a continent?”
“I may add,” continued the SAVANT, “that there are but few accounts of travelers being lost in this immense country. Indeed, I believe Leichardt is the only one of whose fate we are ignorant, and some time before my departure I learned from the Geographical Society that Mcintyre had strong hopes of having discovered traces of him.”
“The whole of Australia, then, is not yet explored?” asked Lady Helena.
“No, madam, but very little of it. This continent is not much better known than the interior of Africa, and yet it is from no lack of enterprising travelers. From 1606 to 1862, more than fifty have been engaged in exploring along the coast and in the interior.”
“Oh, fifty!” exclaimed McNabbs incredulously.
“No, no,” objected the Major; “that is going too far.”
“And I might go farther, McNabbs,” replied the geographer, impatient of contradiction.
“If you doubt me, I can give you the names.”
“Oh, oh,” said the Major, coolly. “That’s just like you SAVANTS. You stick at nothing.”
“Major, will you bet your Purdy-Moore rifle against my telescope?”
“Why not, Paganel, if it would give you any pleasure.”
“Done, Major!” exclaimed Paganel. “You may say good-by to your rifle, for it will never shoot another chamois or fox unless I lend it to you, which I shall always be happy to do, by the by.”
“And whenever you require the use of your telescope, Paganel, I shall be equally obliging,” replied the Major, gravely.
“Let us begin, then; and ladies and gentlemen, you shall be our jury. Robert, you must keep count.”
This was agreed upon, and Paganel forthwith commenced.
“Mnemosyne! Goddess of Memory, chaste mother of the Muses!” he exclaimed, “inspire thy faithful servant and fervent worshiper! Two hundred and fifty-eight years ago, my friends, Australia was unknown. Strong suspicions were entertained of the existence of a great southern continent. In the library of your British Museum, Glenarvan, there are two charts, the date of which is 1550, which mention a country south of Asia, called by the Portuguese Great Java. But these charts are not sufficiently authentic. In the seventeenth century, in 1606, Quiros, a Spanish navigator, discovered a country which he named Australia de Espiritu Santo. Some authors imagine that this was the New Hebrides group, and not Australia. I am not going to discuss the question, however. Count Quiros, Robert, and let us pass on to another.”