From Lisbon (where he was an agent of the Bonvisi merchant house), Francisque d’Albaigne went to Paris to propose the occupation of a “certain very rich new land of very great extent not yet discovered by the kings of Spain and Portugal”.
He claimed to possess “the secrets, charts and necessary instruments for conquering and reducing to the obedience of His Majesty great extent of lands and realms abundant and rich in gold, silver, precious stones, drugs and spiceries”.
[1] Warmly remembering how France regretted dismissing Christopher Columbus, he promised the discovery of a new part of the world a seven-months' voyage away, with “realms abundant and rich in gold, silver, precious stones, drugs and spiceries”.
[2] Although the geographical destination of this enterprise was not plainly stated anywhere in the correspondence a modern authority, E.-T. Hamy, has suggested that the real purpose (concealed in vague and cryptic language) was to explore and colonize the unknown continent of Terra Australis.
[4] The world map in the Cosmography compiled by Velho in 1568 for King Charles IX at the request of Francisque d’Albaigne is noteworthy for having no representation of Australia, which would appear to confirm that he had no interest in Terra Australis.
[7] The d’Albaigne project was again advocated a decade later by Lancelot Voisin de La Popelinière when he published his 1582 book Les Trois Mondes, but this met with no response in a France torn by the French Wars of Religion.