268 Voyage of the Novara. 



was one of the cherished objects of interest to the immortal 

 Alexander von Humboldt. 



Although St. Paul has been in very recent times visited and 

 surveyed by illustrious English navigators,* and although the 

 doubt hitherto existent as to the precise discoverer, and the 

 correct application of the names of the two islands, has been 

 set at rest by the discovery of the original log of Antonio Van 

 Diemen, kept on his voyage from the Texel to Batavia (l6th 

 December, 1632, to 21st July, 1633), by which it is made plain, 

 beyond possibility of contradiction, that that renowned navi- 

 gator passed for certain on 17th July, 1633, between both 

 islands, and conferred on the northern the name of New 

 Amsterdam, and on the southern that of St. Paul;f yet the 



* Captain C. P. Blackwood, of H.M.S. Fly, 1842, and Captain Denliam, C.B., 

 of H.M. Surveying Ship Herald, 1853. M. Tinot " cajntaine du long cours," who 

 visited St. Paul in the summer of 1844, published likewise some interesting 

 memoranda relating to that island, in the " Nouvelle Annales de la Marine et des 

 Colonies," for November, 1853. 



f Previous to the resuscitation, after considerable difl&culty, of tliis important, 

 indeed decisive document, by Mons. L. C. D. Van Dyk, among the arcliives of the 

 East and West India Company of Amsterdam, of which he was Librarian, the 

 utmost uncertainty prevailed as to the discovery, name, and geograj)lucal position of 

 the two islands. Now, William Van Flaming, a Dutch navigator, was supposed to be 

 the discoverer, — now, the hardy Van Diemen. Atlases, charts, and books of 

 travels, spoke of the name St. Paul belonging, here to tlie northern island, there to 

 the southern. This long-continued confusion of names had natiu-ally left ample 

 space for tlie most contradictory statements as to the position, conformation, and 

 geological conditions of both islands. One traveller, for instance, describes 

 Amsterdam as an island witli good anchorage on the North side, and an extinct 

 crater, into wliich ran a fissure, forming a natural link with the ocean ; wliile, on the 

 other hand, he described St. Paul as a desert island, with steeply slopmg shores, 

 which make it matter of difficulty, if not utterly impracticable, to effect a lauding ; 

 whUe other voyagers, again, give tlirectly contrary accounts of both islands. Com- 

 pare the following : — " An autlxentic account of an Embassy from tlve King of Great 



