32 



4th October, but, through contrary winds, they could not get, 

 out, of the harbour of Fort Fredrik Hendrik until the 8th. 

 Taking a departure from the south end of Mauritius,* Tasman 

 stood to the southward, getting variable winds to 31° or 32° S., 

 when he came into the westerly winds. Passing far to the 

 west of St. Paul's and Amsterdam, and between those islands 

 and Kerguelen, he came, in 43° S., on floating seaweed and 

 other indications of land. The ship's council was called 

 together, and it was resolved to keep a man constantly on the 

 ' look-out at the masthead, and to offer as a reward to whoever 

 should first see land three reals of eight and a mug of arrack, 

 On 29th October, three weeks out, he made 46° S. latitude, 

 and, meeting with strong gales and fogs, thought it too 

 dangerous to keep a southerly course for fear of falling in with 

 land. The course was therefore changed to nearly east. On 

 6th November, four weeks out, lie reached his highest lati- 

 tude, 49° 4' S., seeing many indications of land, which kept 

 him anxious. 



The Pilot-Major now delivered to Tasman an elaborate 

 paper, in which he carefully discussed the future course of the 

 voyage. He proposed that they should fall off to 44° S. lati- 

 tude "until they had passed the 150th meridian,! when he 

 judged that, if they had not made the Southern Continent they 

 would be in an open sea. Then they should fall off to 40° S., 

 and sail east to 220° longitude (about, 160° W. according to 

 our reckoning), which he judged would bring them well to the 

 eastward of the Solomons, and enable them to make these 

 islands with the south-east trades — as indeed it would, seeing 

 that this would be about 15° east, of the true position of the 

 Solomons. 



This resolution was communicated to the Zeehaen by en- 

 closing the paper in a wooden case, and floating it astern by a 

 long line for the Zeehaen to pick up. The councils of both 

 ships having given their approval, the course was altered 

 accordingly, and on 18th November they passed the longitude 

 of Nuyts Land (Great Australian Bight), the furthest known 

 extension of the discovered South Land. Here they had heavy 

 westerly gales, and gradually fell off to lat. 42° 25', when on 

 the 24th November, they sighted their first land, which they 

 called Antony Van Diemen's Land, after the Governor-General. 



* As might be expected, Tasman's longitudes are very inexact. They 

 are reckoned east from the meridian of the Peak of Teneriffe. His 

 longitude for the south point of Mauritius, when reduced to the meridian 

 of Greenwich, is 3° 33' easterly of the true longitude. Similarly, that of 

 Batavia is 4° 23' too easterly. 



t About 130° E. of Greenwich — nearly the longitude of the head of the 

 Great Australian Bight. 



