10. Both British and New Zealand historians have supported the concept of Portuguese visiting New Zealand before Abel Tasman

The supporting evidence for Mendonca visiting New Zealand follows.

The Curator of Maps at the British Library, Helen Wallis in 1981 commentary on the Dieppe maps (including the Vallard Atlas) stated:

“…it is notable how many of these names are descriptive of physical features…others seem to record the events and personal associations of an exploring voyage, including saints’ names…it is clear that the land represents a discovery made on a European voyage or coastal exploration. Secondly, it was apparently not a region of settled and civilized populations whose peoples’ would tell a visiting expedition the names of towns and other places (in fact there was no sign of towns). Thirdly, the number of Portuguese names suggests that the voyage was made, or at least recorded, by the Portuguese.”

In New Zealand, two of the leading historians of the nineteenth century Drs Thomas Hocken and Robert McNab commented on the authenticity of the Dieppe Maps. Their pre-eminence continues today is significant library collections.

Dr Thomas Hocken, early New Zealand historian whose name is perpetuated in the

Hocken Library, Dunedin and Dr Robert McNab, early New Zealand historian who donated his collection to the Dunedin Public Library, today the McNab New Zealand Collection contains around 83,000 items.

In 1894 they wrote:

“ Doubtless before Tasman, there were voyagers who had visited New Zealand…We are justified in thinking that there are buried in the old archives of Portugal and of Spain journals which, if found, would give an earlier account of New Zealand than those which we consider our earliest…The iron-bound chests of Portugal and of Spain are the probable repositories of these treasures, or they may have been emptied into the Papal and monkish libraries…and may lie covered with the accumulated dust of centuries”

Dr Hocken further commented on the Vallard Atlas:

“This strange map shadows forth the strong probability that New Zealand was known to Europeans, and most likely to the Portuguese, at least 350 years ago” ie mid-1550’s.

The evidence outlining the visit by the Mendonca’s expedition continues in the next Blog.

Your next read in the series: 11. In Captain Cook’s first visit to New Zealand in 1769 he may have used Portuguese charts to assist in navigation?