Scarce chart of the Indian Ocean and Australasia

An uncommon sea chart showing from Cyprus and the Cape of Good Hope east to Japan, Western Polynesia, Australia and New Zealand, 'Approved by the Chart Committee of the Admiralty'. Across the Indian Ocean are the routes of explorers from Vasco da Gama, Abel & James Cook, to 'Butler's Eastern Passage to China', 1794, running south and east of Australia. Dates of discovery are given. Of particular interest is De la Rochette's attempt to incorporate Alexander Dalyrmple's theory that the Portuguese had sailed down the east coast of Australia in the 1550s. Using a 'Dieppe Map' of the world re-discovered in the British Museum, he argued that 'Java Major' was Australia: here names from that chart ('Costa das Ervas', 'Rio de Muitas' & 'Balra Perdida') have been placed along the coastline with the date 1550.