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Chapter 1.
last update: Jan 24, 2008 06:55 PM
Searching for Terra Australis Incognita
The name Antarctica was found by the ancient Greeks. They were convinced that the earth was round and, in that way, consisted of a northern and a southern hemisphere. According to the philosopher, Aristotle (384-322 BC), nature was symmetrical. If there was a cold zone in the North of the world, then there must be a cold area on the other side as well. The North Pole is located under the constellation of the great bear ('arktos' in Greek). Antarctica means: opposite the bear.
A couple of centuries later this view of the world was readjusted. The geographer, Claudius Ptolemy (100-161 BC), made maps of heaven and earth. On these maps you can see that the Indian Ocean was bordered by a ‘Terra Incognita’ (an unknown land) at the 20th parallel. It wasn't cold there. According to Ptolemy, a lot of rich and wealthy people lived there. And this was the reason why so many people wanted to explore this unknown land. However, there was just one problem: it was said that a hot belt of fire separated the northern and southern hemisphere.
In the Middle Ages the idea of a southern continent was considered nonsense. After all, the world was flat, so it was impossible to live on the ‘other side’. And according to them, Ptolemy’s theories were blasphemous. The belt of fire would make the southern hemisphere inaccessible, so how would people be able to live there? And if those people really did exist, how could they descend from Adam and Eve and be God’s creatures?
On the world map of Dutch Cartographer Ortelius the still unknown Antarctica is named "Terra Australis Nondum Cognita" (unknown south land).
The world was discovered to be different, once sailors started travelling south. In 1497 the Portuguese, Vasco da Gama, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and India. Fernão de Magalhães sailed even more south and found a passage (that will later be named after him) from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific between the South American continent and Tierra del Fuego. Magalhães was convinced that Tierra del Fuego was the northern coast of that mysterious southern continent.
Around that time, Frenchman Binot Paulmyer de Gonneville sailed to America, but ended up in a gale, his ship drifting more and more south. He reached the coast of an unknown land, and de Gonneville was sure about it: he had discovered the southern continent. He stayed there for six months – the inhabitants of the continent were happy, for they didn't have to work because of all the riches. However, it is generally assumed that de Gonneville landed in Brazil.
In 1578 the English queen, Elisabeth I, gave Francis Drake the order to search for Terra Incognita. With his ship, Drake reached the Golden Hind, Cape Horn, the south of Tierra del Fuego, and discovered a new passage to the Pacific (the Strait of Drake). But he didn't find the southern continent.
