I had the opportunity to admire the magnificent monument dedicated to Matthews Flinders at Baie-du-Cap, that was unveiled recently on the occasion of the commemoration of the bicentenary of Flinders and Baudin explorers.

On this monument, there is a plaque giving explanation to the enterprise of Flinders, which mentions his book ?A Voyage Terra Australis? which gave the Australian Continent its name was published in 1814, the day before he died.?

Without the intention to enter in a further polemic or to lessen the importance of the discoveries made by this exceptional navigator, this information is far from being accurate and can give erroneous information to the public. The first mention of the name of Terra Australis is very old and already mentioned in the world map of Ortelius of 1564. Most of maps from 17th and 18th centuries are making mention of Terra Australis. Concerning the name of Australia, erroneously attributed to Flinders, the first mention was done around 200 years before the arrival of Flinders to Australia's coast, more exactly in the year 1606 by Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, a Portuguese navigator sailing under spanish crown and to whom was set the task of discovering the Terra Australis Incognita. On the 1st of May1606, he arrived to an island, today the island of Santo in Vanuatu archipelago. Thinking that he had reached the unknown continent, he gave the name of Australia del Espiritu Santo (Australia of Holy Spirit), in honour of the Habsburg House of Austria, to which the Spanish royal family belonged. Several memorials sent by Quiros to the king Philippe III of Spain (between 1609 and 1611) are giving mention of the name of Australia to Terra Australis Incognita, more that 200 years before Flinders' publication. The memorials of Quiros were translated into English on several occasions before the exploration made by Matthew Flinders: in 1617 by John Hodgetts, in 1625 by Purchas, 1770 by Alexander Dalrymple and 1778 by John Callander.

Juan Carlos REY