ber of the above year, descried land in lat. 
E South, and in about 170° East long. 
from Greenwich, as deduced from Tas- 
man's statement, who reckoned from the 
Pic of Teneriffe. This land was the north- 
_ western shore of the larger, or middle is- 
land of New Zealand, along which he 
| steered to the northward, so close to the 
however, either of smoke, houses, or in- 
habitants, were to be perceived, as the ves- 
sels (named the Heemskirk, a yacht, and 
- the Zeehaan!, a fly-boat) plied along shore. 
. At length, after doubling Cape Farewell 
of Cook, and perceiving the land to bend 
easterly, he entered the Strait, now bear- 
Uhr edes i. 
. ing the name of our great circumnavigator, 
i to anchor in a spacious bay, 
which he afterwards named Moordenaar’s 
or Murderers’ Bay, from the unfortunate 
-" Previous to this sad 
affair, the natives had put off from the 
shore daily in their canoes, and had even 
approached within a stone's cast of Tas- 
man’s vessels; they nevertheless could 
i Rot be tempted to come on board by the 
exhibition of linen or knives; and as our 
navigator did not consider it prudent to 
effect a landing, he entertained no hope of 
Obtaining refreshment for his crew from 
ple, 
sels, 
: » in the offing, which, in allu- 
i T to the day, (the Festival of the Epi- 
* Literally, the Hen of the Sea. 
SPECIMEN OF THE BOTANY OF NEW ZEALAND. 
223 
phany,) he named Drie Koning, or the 
Islands of the Three Kings? 
ow this was all the Dutch navigator, 
Jansz Tasman, saw of New Zealand, of 
the discovery of which, however, modern 
geographers have most justly given him 
the credit. 
At the period of this discovery of Tas- 
man, and for upwards of a century after- 
wards, these islands were considered as a 
part of a vast Terra Australis Incognita, 
and the hypothesis of the existence of a great 
southern continent was fondly entertained 
by geographers, until the results of the 
first voyage of our own great circumnavi- 
gator entirely subverted such a theory. 
n the 5th August, 1769, in prosecut- 
ing the first voyage of circumnavigation, 
Captain Cook made the East coast of the 
northern island, and two days aftewards 
day, October 8, the first landing ever 
effected by Europeans there took place; 
and on its shores, it is worthy of remark, 
those eminent Naturalists, Sir Joseph 
Banks and Dr. Solander, who had accom- 
skill and industry, in the many subsequent 
landings that were afforded them by their 
commanding officer, at various points, 
during the six months he devoted to the 
survey of the coasts of those highly inter- 
esting islands, of which not only the limits 
were wholly unknown prior to that period, 
but, saving the portion on the western 
2 Epiphany Day, the 6th of January, is that on which 
the Infant Saviour was visited by the three Magi, or 
Wise Men from the East, as related to us by St. Mat- 
thew. In Catholic countries, these three personages 
still preserved. 
> Libr. of Ent. Knowl.—See New Zealand, 
