[Fred Nerks]

Another nail in Cook’s coffin as map suggests he was pipped by Portugal

A set of maps unearthed in Australia appear to show that Captain Cook was predated by a little known Portuguese explorer, Cristovao Mendonca, who charted parts of the coastline 250 years earlier. Drawn in the early 16th century, the charts bear a close resemblance to Australia's coastline, and this coastline is marked with locations given names in Portuguese...

[blam]

"Many Portuguese maps were lost for posterity when the repository, the Casa da India, in Lisbon was destroyed by an earthquake in 1755."

Looks like this map survived because of a catastrophe.