126 Transactions. — Mlscellansous. 



board. Thus fortified at all points, they left Mauritius on 

 the 8th October, '-for which," says Tasman, "the Lord be 

 praised and thanked." The course was now south and south- 

 east. On the 27th a considerable quantity of weed was seen, 

 which indicated proximity to land. A council was held, 

 and it was determined to keep a man constantly at the 

 topmast-head on the look-out, and whoever first discovered 

 land, rocks, or shoals should be rewarded with three reals and 

 an extra pot of arrack or rum. Nothing further, however, 

 was seen for nearly a month, and until the 24th November, 

 when Tasman made his first discovery, that of Van Die- 

 men's Land, so called by him after his patron the Batavian 

 Governor. The distance thus run from Slauritius was nearly 

 6,000 miles, the average daily run being about 140 miles. He 

 named many of the bays and headlaiids — names retained 

 to this day, such as Frederick Henry and Storm Bay, 

 Maria Island, &c. He explored here until the 4th Decem- 

 ber, and saw at a distance some of the inhabitants, smoke 

 rising in the woods, steps cut into the trees with flint axes, 

 whereby the natives climbed up them to search for birds' 

 nests; specimens of gum, and so on. Before leaving Van 

 Diemen's Land, on the 5th December, a fort was erected in 

 Frederick Henry Bay, with a flag flying on it. The vessels 

 were again at sea on the 5th December. A council was 

 called, when it was agreed that the course held should still 

 be one due east, and that it should be kept for twenty-six 

 degrees of further longitude ; if no further land was fallen 

 in with, a northerly course should be shaped for home. Bight 

 days later, on the 13th December, Staten Land, or New 

 Zealand, was discovered. As the distance run from Van 

 Diemen's Land was about 1,000 miles, it is evident that the 

 average sailing-rate of 125 miles a day had been still main- 

 tained. 



It will save interruption in Tasman' s narrative, and 

 render it more intelligible, if at this point I preface a few 

 further words of ej^^lanation. The laud — "the great high 

 land," as Tasman calls it — he would first see between Hoki- 

 tika and Okarito ; and it is not too fanciful to say that that 

 great mountain which two hundred and fifty years later was 

 called by his name was one of the first sights he saw on 

 the wild west coast. Somewhat further north he describes 

 that low point known to us as Captain Cook's Cape Foul- 

 wind, with its outlying steep rocks or cliffs, the Steeples. 

 Westport is not far from this j)oint. " North of this," as 

 Tasman says, "the land makes a great bight": this is the 

 Karamea Bight. Then came the " furthermost point, which 

 stood out so boldly that we had no doubt it was the extreme 

 point.' This is now Captain Cook's Cape Farewell, with 



