Title: Conquistador Puzzle Trail /
Year: 2015
Subjects: Discoveries in geography Portuguese; Discoveries in geography Spanish; New Zealand Discovery and exploration Portuguese.; Australia Discovery and exploration Portuguese.; Australia Discovery and exploration Spanish.; Australia; New Zealand
Abstract: A revision of Australian and New Zealand history that concludes that the Portuguese most likely and on the balance of probabilities, discovered Australia and New Zealand in circa 1520-1524, and the Spanish may also have voyaged to New Zealand between 1576-1578. Conquistador Puzzle Trail takes the reader through each puzzle piece, puts the arguments for and against its antiquity to the reader, and encourages the reader to decide what part of the Conquistador Puzzle that piece forms.
Contents: The Conquistador puzzle -- a 228-year-old theory -- The golden age of Spanish and Portuguese exploration -- The Conquistador Trail puzzle pieces: Puzzle piece 1. Early sixteenth century maps of New Zealand & Australia? -- Puzzle piece 2. A British Admiralty map referencing a Portuguese discovery of New Zealand -- Puzzle piece 3. A Madrid Naval Museum map referencing a Spanish discovery of New Zealand -- Puzzle piece 4. An iron helmet likely found in Wellington Harbour, New Zealand -- Puzzle piece 5. An iron helmet found in Manukau Harbour, New Zealand -- Puzzle piece 6. A European woman in New Zealand between 1619-1689? -- Puzzle piece 7. The "Tamil" Bell, Whangarei, New Zealand -- Puzzle piece 8. The "Korotangi" Kāwhia, New Zealand -- Puzzle piece 9. Shipwrecks on New Zealand's coasts -- Puzzle piece 10. Fair-skinned and red-haired Māori, Northland, New Zealand -- Puzzle piece 11. Northland oral tradition, New Zealand -- Puzzle piece 12. Wider New Zealand oral tradition -- Puzzle piece 13. Venerable pohutukawa trees in the Spanisg coastal port of La Coruña, Northern Spain -- Puzzle piece 14. "Aranga" in Spain and "Aranga" in New Zealand -- Puzzle piece 15. Northern Australian cannon and coins -- Puzzle piece 16. Australian East Coast enigmas -- Puzzle piece 17. South-East Australian mysteries -- Puzzle piece 18. A kangaroo in a Portuguese manuscript -- Puzzle piece 19. The cannon of Amanu and red-haired Tahitians -- Puzzle piece 20. The Iberian expeditions into the South Seas -- On the trail: meeting the modern day Conquistadors -- How does the Conquistador puzzle fit together? -- Conclusion -- The new New Zealand paradigm? -- The new Australian paradigm? -- Epilogue -- Answers.