12 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



South Land, and to report on its natural wealth 

 and the possibility of discovering a new trade 

 route to South America. On the 4th August, 1642, 

 Tasman set out from Batavia in the HeemskercJc, 

 a vessel of two hundred tons, with the flyboat 

 Zeehaan in company, of rather less burden ; they 

 arrived at Mauritius on September 5th, though by 

 their reckoning they should have been two hundred 

 miles to the east ; a fact which shows us how 

 very inaccurate was the calculation of longitude 

 in those days. The ships arrived in a rotten and 

 leaky condition, and short of supplies, so that it 

 was not until a month later that they set out 

 again on their adventurous voyage. On Novem- 

 ber 24th they sighted land which can be easily 

 identified as the mountains at the back of Mac- 

 quarie Harbour on the west coast of Tasmania, 

 and thus Van Diemen's Land, as Tasman called 

 it, was seen for the first time. Tasman sailed 

 round the southernmost extension of the coast, 

 and after encountering a fierce storm in Storm 

 Bay, named after the incident, he anchored in 

 what is now known as Blackman's Bay on 

 Forestier's Peninsula. Tasman tried to go ashore, 

 but the surf prevented his landing, so that the 

 ship's carpenter had to swim to the shore and 

 plant a flag. Nothing was seen of the natives. 

 Tasman now sailed eastward, and after discovering 

 New Zealand, where he had a bloody encounter 

 with the Maoris, he returned to Batavia through 

 the straits north of New Guinea, arriving home 



