34 



Peninsula), lie took his departure from " a high round 

 mountain" — probably St. Patrick's Head, or perhaps St. 

 Paul's Dome.* 



Steering due east from the coast of Antony Van Diemen's 

 Land, after nine days he sighted land again (13th December). 

 This was the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand, 

 to the south of Cook's Strait. 



In an interesting paper by Dr. T. M. Hocken, of Duncdin, 

 on Tasman's discoveries in New Zealand, it is stated that 

 "the great high land" that Tasman first saw is situated 

 between Hokitika and Okarito. Further north the low point 

 described in the journal is Cook's Cape Foulwiud, with its 

 outlying rocks, the Steeples, near Westport. North of this 

 the Karamea Bight, and the " furthermost point, which stood 

 out so boldly that we had no doubt it was the extreme point," 

 is Cook's Cape Farewell. 



Coasting north-eastwards he made a bay on the north coast 

 of the South Island, where he anchored. Here the Maoris in 

 their war canoes attacked one of the Zeehaen's boats, killed 

 three of the crew, and mortally wounded a fourth man. 

 Tasman gave this bay the name of Moordenaars (or Massacre) 

 Bay. He says, " This is the second land we have discovered ; 

 we have given it the name of the Staten Land in honour of 

 Their High Mightinesses the States General, and also because 

 it may be that this land is joined to Staten Land (near Cape 

 Horn), but this is uncertain. It appears to be a very fine 

 country. Believing that this is the main continent of the 

 Unknown Southland, we have given this strait .the name of 

 Abel Tasman's Passage, as he has been the first to sail through 

 it."t 



Massacre Bay is near the western entrance of Cook's Strait ; 

 it is now called Golden Bay, and the scene of the tragedy, 

 according to Dr. Hocken, lies close to Parapara. 



Although Tasman noted a south-east current and suspected 

 that there must be a passage, the weather was so bad that he 

 did not stay to look for it ; if he had done so he would have 

 sailed through Cook's Strait and corrected his idea that he 

 had found the Great Southern Continent. However, he sailed 



* Tasman's longitudes, reduced to the meridian of Greenwich, are for 

 Point Hibbs, 147° 11'; for the anchorage off Green Island, 160° 51'. 

 The true longitudes are 145° 15' and 348° 1' respectively. The first, 

 shows an error of 1° 50', the second an error of -2° 50', thus mating Tas- 

 mania too broad by nearly one whole dejiree of longitude. 



In the Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 

 1890, is a paper by the present writer, in which the localities mentioned 

 by Tasman in his journal are identified and described. 



t The English Admiralty has lately given to the sea between Aus, 

 tralia and New Zealand the name of the Tatman Sea, 



