France |
1504 |
Binot Paulmier de Gonneville set out to explore the route to the Indies following Vasco da Gama’s successful voyage. Supposedly found a land mass south of Africa, but lost his ship and his journals on the French Atlantic coast as he was nearing home at the end of his voyage. Gonneville had reason to keep the exact location secret—France at the time was denied the right to such claims by the Treaty of Tordesillas. Gonneville Land became part of the myth of the Unknown Southland—Terra Australis Incognita or Terre Australe. |
Duyfken |
