PREFACE. 



No life of the first circumnavigator of Australia has hitherto 

 appeared in English. Nothing has been accessible to the 

 English reader but an abstract of one voyage and a few lines 

 in biographical dictionaries. This is scarcely surprising, when 

 we consider how careless Tasman's own countrymen have been 

 of his fame. Fifty years ago all that had been printed in his 

 own country consisted of short abstracts of a few voyages, and 

 these were hidden away in bulky collections. Even the date 

 and place of his birth were matter for conjecture and dispute. 

 Things are somewhat better now. Thirty-five years ago the 

 complete journal of his famous voyage of 1642 was published 

 in Holland, and we are now promised a sumptuous fac simile 

 edition of the original manuscript, with notes by two eminent 

 scholars, and with an English translation. 



Moreover, patient searchers in the Dutch Colonial Archives 

 have for years past been laboriously gleaning scattered par- 

 ticulars respecting him, and the results of their investigations 

 have been printed from time to time in the transactions of 

 Dutch learned societies, and in other places. It has thus 

 become possible to piece together a fairly connected account of 

 the great navigator's life. 



But after all available information has been made use of, 

 the result is disappointing. The man himself remains for the 

 most part an indistinct figure. Personal details are few. The 

 facts are mostly dry and meagre, gathered from formal official 

 despatches and dusty registers. The material is wanting for a 

 biography which would give a clear and sharply defined picture 

 of the man as he lived. 



It is possible, however, to attain what is of even more 

 interest. We can arrive at a just estimate of his work as a 

 discoverer, and of his place among the great navigators of the 



