NEW ZEALAND. 



THIS country was first discovered by Tasman, the Dutch naviga- 

 tor, in the year 1642, who gave it the name of Staten Island, though 

 it has been generally distinguished in our maps and charts by the 

 name of New Zealand, and was supposed to be part of a southern 

 continent ; but it is now known, from the late discoveries of captain 

 Cook, who sailed round it, to consist of two large islands, divided 

 from each other by a strait four or five leagues broad. They are situ- 

 ate between the latitudes of 34 and 48 degrees south, and between 

 the longitudes of 166 and 180 degrees east from Greenwich. One 

 of these islands is for the most part mountainous, rather barren, and 

 but thinly inhabited ; but the other is much more fertile, and of a 

 better appearance. In the opinion of Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. So- 

 lander, every kind of European fruits, grain, and plants, would flou- 

 rish here in the utmost luxuriance. From the vegetables found here, 

 it is supposed that the winters are milder than those in England, and 

 the summers not hotter, though more equably warm : so that it is 

 imagined, if this country were settled by people from Europe, that 

 they would, with moderate industry, be soon supplied not only with 

 the necessaries, but the luxuries of life, in great abundance. Here 

 are forests of vast extent, filled with very large timber trees; and 

 near four hundred plants were found here that had not been described 

 by naturalists. The inhabitants of New Zealand are stout and robust, 

 and equal in stature to the largest Europeans. Their colour in gene- 

 ral is brown, but in few deeper than that of a Spaniard who has been 

 exposed to the sun, and in many not so deep ; and both sexes have 

 good features. Their dress is very uncouth, and they mark or tattoo 

 their bodies in a manner similar to the inhabitants of Otaheite. Their 

 principal weapons are lances, darts, and a kind of battle axes; and 

 they have generally shown themselves very hostile to the Europeans 

 who have visited them. 



NEW HOLLAND. 



THE largest island in the world, and formerly supposed to be a 

 part of that imaginary continent called Terra Australia Incognita, 

 iies between 10 degrees 30 minutes, and 43 degrees south latitude, 

 and between 140 and 153 degrees 30 minutes east longitude; equal- 

 ling in extent the whole continent of Europe, the eastern coast run- 

 ning not less than 2000 miles in length from north-east to south-west. 

 Its dimensions from east to west have not been so exactly ascertained, 

 cs we are obliged to take our information concerning them from the 

 accounts of navigators of different nations, who visited this part of 

 the world at a time when the method of making observations, and 

 finding the latitudes and longitudes of places, was less accurate than 

 it is now. Different parts of the country have been called by the 



