270 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



thread of De Nuyts's discovery, and to ascertain whither 

 his coastline trended. Visscher preferred " gradually 

 to deviate more to the Northward " ; a decision which 

 left to Flinders, one hundred and sixty years later, the 

 task of discovering what lay to the East of Fowler's Bay, 

 and the islands of St. Peter and St. Francis. 



Discoveryof On the 23rd of November, they estimated they were 

 Diemen's * n Latitude 4 2 5 o/ > Longitude 162 5' (from Teneriffe), 

 Land, 24th and that " the West side of New Guinea must be North 

 Nov * of us. " Next day," in the afternoon about 4 o'clock, 



we saw land bearing East by North of us at about ten 

 miles distance by estimation ; the land we sighted was 

 very high ; towards evening we also saw East-South-East 

 of us three high mountains, and to the North-East two 

 more mountains, but less high than those to the Southward. 

 . . . This land being the first we have met with in the South 

 Sea, and not known to any European nation, we have 

 conferred on it the name of Anthony van Diemenslandt, 

 in honour of the Hon. Governor-General, our illustrious 

 master, who sent us to make the discovery ; the islands 

 circumjacent, so far as known to us, we have named 

 after the Hon. Councillors of India, as may be seen from 

 the little chart which has been made of them." 



Tasman had come to the West coast of the island that now 

 bears his name. " It is probable," writes Mr. Walker, 1 

 " that the first land seen was the mountainous country 

 to the North of Macquarie Harbour." The two mountains 

 were identified by Flinders, the voyager who next sailed 

 that way, in 1798, and were named by him Mount Heems- 

 kerck and Mount Zeehan. Sailing South, Tasman noted 

 on the 28th " an islet which in shape resembles a lion " 

 ("the Mewstone "), and on the 29th "we passed two 

 rocks of which the Westernmost " (" Peter's Banks," 

 says Mr. Walker, p. 130) " was like Pedra Branca off 

 the coast of China ; the Easternmost was like a tall obtuse 

 square tower." " In the evening about 5, we came before 

 a Bay, which seemed likely to afford a good anchorage ; 

 upon which we resolved with our ship's Council to run 

 1 Walker, p. 129. 



