Ins kleine gebrachte karte von den Süd-Lændern : zur Historie der Reisen

This map is by a French cartographer, named Jacques Bellin. Bellin was a great recorder of the oceans and the landmasses and the islands around the world. His pathbreaking work is still highly regarded. Bellin was a Frenchman, and one of the subjects, the subject that he took on here, was the continent, or huge island, of Australia. Well, this was in an early day in the middle of the 18th Century. And even as of that date it was not clear whether Australia was separate and apart from the mainland or whether it was connected. In this particular case, the assumption was that it was connected. And one of the reasons that I love this map is that, like so many others in the collection, it shows a best effort at getting the facts straight, but falling short for lack of better information.