276 



DISCOVERY OF VAN DIEMEN S I, AM;. 



point doubtful, f!ie name being written on the land 

 between the two ports. But in (lie chart as reproduced 

 by Vallentyn, and stated to have been copied by him 

 from the original journal, the name is distinctly written 

 in Blackmail's Bay. On the whole, therefore, it, seems 

 probable that this is the Frederik Hendrik Bay of 

 Tasman. 



The eastern shore of Forestier's Peninsula is wild and 

 rugged, and scarcely known except to the hardy fisher- 

 men who, in their trips northward along the coast, fish 

 in its quiet nooks, or run for shelter into the beautiful 

 inlet of Wilmot Harbour. With the exception of a 

 solitary shepherd's dwelling on the shore of this harbour — 

 locally known as Lagoon Bay — the eastern part of the 

 Peninsula is uninhabited, and so difficult of access that it 

 is seldom visited. In the early part of 1889 I had an 

 opportunity of thoroughly exploring a locality which 

 must always be of interest as the spot where the sailors 

 of the great Dutchman first set foot on the island which 

 bears his name. 



Our party — which included my friend Mr. II. M. 

 Johnston— left East Bay Neck in a fishing-boat to camp 

 at Chinaman's Point just within "The Narrows," or 

 entrance of Blackman's Bay. During the time of our 

 ten days' camping we cruised in our boat over the great 

 bay outside, seeing the coast from the point of view 

 which Tasrnan occupied when the Heemsherk lay at 

 anchor off' rocky little Green Island. We could thus 

 realise the scene, unaltered after two centuries and a 

 half, which presented itself to the old navigator when he 

 caught his first near view of the picturesque shores of 

 this outpost of the Great South Land, the mysterious 

 continent of his search. To the south stood the jutting 

 basaltic columns of Cape Frederick Henry — a lesser 

 Cape Raoul — backed by the high round of Hamper's 

 Bluff. Thence his eye travelled northward round twenty 

 miles of curving shore, its white beaches broken here 

 and there by dark cliffs and rocky points. On the 

 north, beyond the long stretch of white sand, barring 

 Blackman's Bay, rose steep-wooded hills, buttressed at 

 their eastern end by the abrupt mass ol Cape Bernier, 

 thrusting its almost precipitous slope into the ocean, anil 

 Hanked by the hills of Maria Island, shutting in the 

 great bay on the north-east. The coast view from the 

 offing is fine, but, if the visitor wishes to appreciate fully 

 the picturesqueness of the shore, and to identify the spots 

 mentioned in the quaint old Dutch journal, he must be 

 prepared for some rough scrambling on the Peninsula 



