MANUSCRIPT CHART OF TASMANIA. 409 



nor do I think that there can be any I'easonable doubt but 

 that it was written in 1643. The chart has marked upon it 

 coh:)nred scales of the south latitude from 40° to 45°, and of 

 the lono-itude west from Teneriffe from about 161° 30' to 

 169° 30'. A north and south line is marked on it, and on 

 each side of this line i-ectangles are marked of about 90 

 geographical miles square, one of which is occu]»ied by a 

 quadrant compass. The line> defining these squares do not 

 coincide with the degrees of longitude, nor with those of 

 latitude, except in the case of the parallel of 40° south. 

 There are no names written on the face of the chart ; but 

 the anchorage of Tasman, in whaf is now known as 

 Marion's Bay, is marked. A glance at the chart will show 

 that it represents the same land as that represented by Tas- 

 man's own chart. I could not learn in the India Office that 

 there is any record of how it came into the possession of the 

 Old Company. And when the jealousy with which the 

 Dutch guarded the secret of their discoveries is remembered, 

 and also the history of the publication of Tasman's cliarts, it 

 is certainly very remarkable to find that a chart of the most 

 important of his discoveries should have been in an English- 

 man's possession in 1643. 



Tasman sailed from Batavia in the Heemshirh, with the 

 Zeehaon in company, on the 14th August, 1642, and returned 

 there on the 15th June, 1643. According to Bnrney, the 

 first account known to have been published of his voyage 

 was an abridgement of Tasman's journal ])ublished by I)irck 

 Rembrandt von Nierop, at Amsterdam, in 1674. This 

 seems to have been without maps. The " draught " in the 

 India Office could not thei-efore have been copied from 

 Rembrandt's woi'k. The first published map of Tasman's 

 discoveries was that in Valetityn's book printed in 1726, and 

 it does not agree with the draught in all its details, nor does 

 the character of the wi'iting of the endorsement on the latter 

 allow the su])position that it was written after 1726, even if 

 no attention be paid to the date on it, 1643. 



Furthermore, an examination of the draught itself will 

 show that it was not copied from any other chart of which we 

 have knowledge. As above said, it difilr-^ iiom the chart 

 given by Valentyn. It differs equally from what is said to 

 be Tasman's original chart as preserved with his journal in 

 the British Museum (8946, Plut. CLxxiiD), a copy of 

 which, taken from one made by Mr. Bonwick, accompanies 

 this paper. The following differences will be noted between 



