11. In Captain Cook’s first visit to New Zealand in 1769 he may have used Portuguese charts to assist in navigation?

The following is an outline of the evidence supporting Mendonca's visit to New Zealand.

One piece of evidence exists with the British Admiralty Chart No. 748 printed in 1803 containing references to a Portuguese discovery of New Zealand around 1550. This Chart was used for the next 50 years. Cook Strait was named as the “Gulf of the Portuguese” and East Cape is “Cabo Fermoso” which is Cape Beautiful in Portuguese. Written on the map next to New Zealand was:

“New Zeeland (Discovered and named by Tasman 1642 but where eastern coast was known to the Portuguese, about the year 1550)”

The reason why the British Admiralty cited Mendonca’s voyage “around 1550” was because the Vallard Atlas was not produced until 1547 and did not come into possession of the British Library until 1790. The Atlas was gifted by Joseph Banks who sailed on Captain James Cook’s first expedition decades earlier. Did Banks have the Vallard Atlas on board during Cook’s first expedition? Cook in his private correspondence after he returned to England commented on places he visited in Australia being different from what he had been told.

In summary, many sources supported the Portuguese discovering New Zealand and/or Australia: Major 1859, Hocken and McNab (1894), Collingridge (1895), McIntrye (1977, 1982), Wallis (1981), Trickett (2007), and also the British Admiralty between 1803-56.

Your next read in the series: 12. Our New Zealand history is written with a Dutch and English bias.