278 



DISCOVERY OF VAN DIEMEN S LAND. 



are rocky and broken, but further in the rocks give place 

 to a beach of large grey shingle. As you advance along 

 the shore up the bay the banks of shingle on each side 

 curve into two horns shelving out towards the centre of 

 the bay, and forming a bar extending nearly the whole 

 way across the entrance to the inner cove. Within the 

 bar of shingle lies enclosed a lovely cove, its quiet waters 

 fringed by a curved beach of great smooth stones. On 

 either hand it is shut in by steep banks crowned with 

 dark forest, and from the steep grey beach at the bottom 

 of the cove a wooded valley runs inland. Standing just 

 outside the shingle bar at the entrance to this inner 

 harbour it needs no great effort of the imagination to 

 call up the scene on that 3rd December, 1642. Away 

 out in the offing, near yonder grotesquely shaped Green 

 Island, the high-pooped old Butch ships lie at anchor. 

 The wind is blowing fresh from the eastward, and two 

 boats put off from the ships and stand for the shore. 

 The wind increases to half a gale, and while the smaller 

 boat runs back to the ships the larger boat changes her 

 course and heads for this bay. As she approaches we 

 can see on board of her Tasman himself, and some of the 

 lleetmkerlt's officers ; Gerrit Janszoon, the master ; 

 Abraham Coomans, the supercargo; and Peter Jacobs- 

 zoon, the carpenter. The surf breaks violently on the 

 shingle, and Tasman finds that to land in such a sea is 

 impossible without great danger of wrecking the boat. 

 Must he, then, after all, sail away without taking formal 

 possession of the newly-discovered land? There is a 

 short deliberation as the rowers rest on their oars, and 

 then the carpenter, Jacobszoon, hastily throws off his 

 clothes, plunges into the sea, and, pushing his flag-pole 

 before him, strikes out tor the shore. Making his way 

 through the breaking surf he lands on the shingle beach, 

 and there, at the loot of the steep slope, where four 

 stately gums stand in a crescent on the hill side, he plants 

 the flag of the Prince Stadthokler. We can imagine 

 the cheer which greeted the raising of the flag as'the 

 carpenter, in the name of the States-General, thus took 

 possession of the new territory of the Great South Land. 

 Then the boat is brought as close in to the shore as 

 possible, the carpenter swims out to her again through 

 the surf; and tkey return on board the Meemskerk. 

 "Leaving the flag," says Tasman, "as a memento to 

 posterity and to the inhabitants of the country, who, 

 though they did not show themselves, we thought were 

 not far off, carefully watching the proceedings of the 

 invaders of their territory." 



