24 THE ANTARCTIC. 



quently named Cape Hoorn, had failed to do thirty-eight 

 years before, viz., the separation on the maps and in 

 contemporary geography books of Tierra del Fuego 

 from the great southern continent. It was not a pure 

 zeal for discovery that prompted these two to find a 

 passage south of the Straits of Magellan. They were 

 intent on evading the monopoly of the Dutch East India 

 Company, which gave the sole right of passage through 

 the Straits of Magellan to Dutch merchantmen. On 

 the 25th of January, 1616, they sailed through the 

 straits named after Le Maire, the east coast of which 

 was called Staaten Island, in honour of the States- 

 General of Holland. The south coast of Tierra del 

 Fuego was examined, together with the small outlying 

 islands, which received names. The southern extremity 

 was called Cape Hoorn in honour of Schouten's native 

 town. 



Nevertheless, even this voyage was powerless to 

 entirely remove the southern continent of the maps from 

 the waters in the region of Tierra del Fuego. When the 

 greatest navigator of the seventeenth century, Abel 

 Tasman, on his memorable voyage in search of the 

 southern continent took an uninterrupted easterly course 

 in latitude 45° to 49° S. after leaving the island of Mauritius, 

 he unexpectedly came upon a mountainous country, on the 

 13th of December, 1642. This was the southern island 

 ■of New Zealand (he had discovered the south coast of 

 Van Diemen's Land, now called Tasmania, a few weeks 

 before), to which the name Staaten Land was applied, on 

 the assumption that it was connected on the east with 

 the Straits of Le Maire. It was a mere chance that a 

 few months later, in March, 1643, a Dutchman of the 

 name of Brouwer found how small the extent of the 

 South American Staaten Island actually was, and thus 

 at last freed South America from all close connection 

 with the mythical Terra australis. 



