Presentation copy, inscribed and signed by the author: a thorough examination of Richard Henry Major's Life of Henry the Navigator by a member of the Société de Géographie. Major is remembered as a pioneering revisionist voyage historian who challenged conventional notions on the first discovery of Australia. Major championed the Portuguese claim throughout his career, and enjoyed privileged access to rare manuscript and cartographic materials as an employee of the British Museum and secretary of the Hakluyt Society. Major's linguistic skill allowed him to study and interpret first-hand archaic and difficult material beyond the grasp of his contemporaries. And in 1861 Major was honoured by Pedro V of Portugal and made a knight of the Tower and the Sword.

Presentation copy, inscribed and signed by the author: a thorough examination of Richard Henry Major's Life of Henry the Navigator by a member of the Société de Géographie. Major is remembered as a pioneering revisionist voyage historian who challenged conventional notions on the first discovery of Australia. Major championed the Portuguese claim throughout his career, and enjoyed privileged access to rare manuscript and cartographic materials as an employee of the British Museum and secretary of the Hakluyt Society. Major's linguistic skill allowed him to study and interpret first-hand archaic and difficult material beyond the grasp of his contemporaries. And in 1861 Major was honoured by Pedro V of Portugal and made a knight of the Tower and the Sword.

Although many of Major's beliefs are now not widely held (and his interpretation of the Dieppe maps has been vigorously challenged), his publications reinvigorated interest in the early voyages and stimulated debate upon in the maritime discovery of Australia before Cook.