704 
CHRONOLOGY. 
It was doubtless appointed that tbe discoveries of Colum- 
bus should first be peopled, and when the way for their 
being so was opened out, that then the attention of our age 
should be directed to Australasia and Polynesia. 
The earliest claim set up for the discovery of New Zealand 
is advanced by the French, in behalf of their countryman, 
the Sieur Binot Paulnier, who sailed from France in June 
1503, pursuing a south-west course to 60° south lat. ; he 
then veered towards the west north-west and north-west, 
when he fell in with many strange lands, and finally reached 
a large continent, peopled by a numerous race of amiable 
savages, amongst whom he remained nearly a year, and 
quitted with regret July 3, 1504. The son of one of the 
chiefs accompanied him to France, and afterwards married 
into his family ; the account of his course is too vague to 
make out anything satisfactory from it, but there is little 
probability that his amiable savages were New Zealanders 
as they would have been more inclined to regard the Sieur as 
a fit subject upon whom to exercise their gastronomic powers. 
The description seems rather to apply to the natives of the 
Philippine Isles, and this west north-west and north-west 
course was as likely to bring him there as to New Zealand. 
1576, Juan Fernandez sailed from Southwestern America 
for about a month, in a south-west direction, and reached a 
land, fertile and pleasant, inhabited by white people, well 
made, and dressed in a kind of woven cloth. This also is 
a very vague account : the description will apply to the Ta- 
li aiti an as well as to the New Zealander, and the length of 
the voyage would be more likely to bring him to that island 
than to New Zealand ; for even in the present day, six weeks 
is considered a quick passage from New Zealand to South 
America. 
1642, 14th of August, Abel Tasman sailed from Batavia 
with two vessels, the Heemshirk and the Zeehaen ; on the 
9th of September, he was in lat. 42° 37' south, and Ion. 176° 
29', the variation being 3° to the east; on the 13th, being 
in lat. 43° 10', variation 7° 30' east, he discovered a high 
mountainous country. The natives played on a kind of 
