1 40 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



In 1644 he was again despatched to examine the north 

 coast of New Holland, and to explore what is known to-day 

 as Torres Straits. The papers connected with this important 

 exploration have never, so far, been discovered. But the pains- 

 taking research made of late years into various departments 

 of long-forgotten history may yet succeed in giving us another 

 and Tasman's last Journal. Proud of the discoveries of their 

 countrymen, which were enriched so specially by those of 

 Tasman, the Dutch sought to perpetuate them in imperishable 

 marble. In 1648 they erected at x\msterdam their magnifi- 

 cent Stadhuis or Town Hall. Part of the embellishments 

 consisted of a map of the world, projected as a planisphere 

 and deeply cut into the stone floor. Each of the hemispheres 

 was 22ft. in diameter, and they contained all that had been 

 discovered of New Holland, Van Diemen's Land, and New 

 Zealand. But the traffic of thousands of feet finally effaced 

 this curious map, and when, in 1773, Sir Joseph Banks visited 

 Amsterdam no trace of it remained, nor had the oldest inhabit- 

 ant any personal knowledge of it. Fortunately, M. Thevenot 

 copied the most material portion, and this appears i\\ his 

 "Divers Voyages Curieuses," Paris, 1663. It is also found 

 in an old British Museum map, and in outline in Jansseu's 

 " x\tlas," 1650. The labour of preparing this account of 

 Tasman and his work is amply rewarded in laying it before 

 an audience which on so many previous occasions has granted 

 me a patient hearing. If it should reach the hands of those 

 whose business it is to traverse our west coast, I hope they 

 may be interested in comparing the details of their own log 

 with those of an old seaman of two hundred and fifty years 

 ago. 



[Since this paper was written I have corresponded with 

 Messrs. Frederik Miiller and Co., of Amsterdam, who are 

 preparing for publication the edition cle Uixc of Tasman's 

 Journal above referred to. They say, "The papers of the 

 Dutch East India Company are now in the Hague State 

 archives. A journal of the 1644 voyage was never found, 

 only the binding wherein it had been bound once was found 

 by the old Mr. Frederik Miiller in the State archives some 

 twenty-five or thirty years ago." — T. M. H.] 



