Nor Would
There Be Anything Remarkable In The Use Of The Name Terre Napoleon, If
The French Had Really Discovered The Region So Described.
In every part
of the world there are lands named after the rulers of the nations to
which the discoverers or founders belonged.
Raleigh named Virginia "from
the maiden Queen"; the two Carolinas preserve the name of the amorous
monarch who granted the original charter of colonisation "out of a Pious
and good intention for ye propogacion of ye Christian faith amongst ye
Barbarous and Ignorant Indians, ye Inlargement of his Empire and
Dominions, and Inriching of his Subjects"; and two states of Australia
commemorate by their names the great Queen who occupied the British
throne when they were founded. There would have been nothing unusual or
improper in the action of the French in styling the country from Wilson's
Promontory to Cape Adieu "Terre Napoleon," except that they did not
discover it. What they did excites a feeling akin to derision, because it
bore the character of "jumping a claim," to use an Australian mining
phrase.
Nor is it to be inferred that affixing the name was intended to assert
possession. An examination of the large chart of Australia shows that the
whole of the coast-line, except this particular stretch, was previously
named. There was Terre de Nuyts on the south-west; Terre de Leeuwin,
Terre d'Endrels, Terre d'Endracht were on the west; Terre de Witt on the
north-west; Terre d'Arnheim and Terre de Carpentarie on the north.
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