222 GENERAL ACCOUNT OF NEW ZEALAND CHAP, x 



the south-east ; from thence he conjectured that there was in 

 that place a passage through the land, which conjecture we 

 proved to be true, as he himself had certainly done, had 

 not the wind changed as he thought in his favour, giving him 

 an opportunity of returning the way he came in, which he 

 preferred to standing into a bay with an on-shore wind, 

 upon the strength of conjecture only. Again, when he came 

 the length of Cape Maria Van Diemen he observed hollow 

 waves to come from the north-east, from whence he concluded 

 it to be the northernmost part of the land, which we really 

 found it to be. Lastly, to his eternal credit be it spoken, 

 although he had been four months absent from Batavia 

 when he made this land, and had sailed both west and east, 

 his longitude (allowing for an error in that of Batavia, as he 

 has himself stated it) differs no more than l from ours, 



which is corrected by an innumerable number of observa- 

 tions of the moon and sun, etc., as well as of a transit of 

 Mercury over the sun, all calculated and observed by Mr. 

 Green, a mathematician of well-known abilities, who was 

 sent out in this ship by the Royal Society to observe the 

 transit of Venus. Thus much for Tasman ; it were too much 

 to be wished, however, that we had a fuller account of his 

 voyage than that published by Dirk Eembrantz, which seems 

 to be no more than a short extract, and that other navigators 

 would imitate him in mentioning the supposed latitudes and 

 longitudes of the places from whence they take their de- 

 partures ; which precaution, useful as it is, may almost be 

 said to have been used by Tasman alone. 



The face of the country is in general mountainous, 

 especially inland, where probably runs a chain of very high 

 hills, parts of which we saw at several times. They were 

 generally covered with snow, and certainly very high ; some 

 of our officers, men of experience, did not scruple to say as 



1 Left blank in Banks's Journal. The following note was appended by 

 Banks at the end of the chapter : 



Though Tasman's longitude of Cape Maria Van Diemen comes near the 

 truth, our seamen affirm, and seem to make it appear, that he erred no less 

 than 4 49' in running from the first land he made to Cape Maria Van Diemen ; 

 if so, his exactness must be attributed more to chance than skill. 



