70S 
N E W. 
thigh. They are cleanly, of a lively and grateful difpo- 
fition, capable of friendfhip and inftrudiion. Their 
lioufes are of wood, covered with palm-leaves. They 
have places of worth!p and burial. They work in ftone, 
and polifli marble, of which there are many quarries. 
They make flutes, drums, wooden fpoons, and, from the 
mother-of-pearl, form chifl'els, fcitfars, knives, hooks, 
laws, hatchets, and fmall round plates for necklaces. 
Their canoes are well-built and neatly finiflned. Hogs, 
goats, cows, buffaloes, and various fowls and fifh, for 
food, are found in abundance on and about thefe iflands. 
Added to all thefe and many other excellencies, thefe 
iflands are reprefented as having a remarkably falubrious 
air, which is evinced by the healthy robuft appearance of 
the inhabitants, who live to a great age, and yet have no 
other bed than the earth. Such is the defcription which 
Quiros gives of thefe iflands, in and about which he fpent 
fome months, and which he reprefents to the king of 
Spain as “ the mod delicious country in the world ; the 
garden of Eden, the inexhauftible fource of glory, riches, 
and power, to Spain.” 
Of this terreftrial paradife, which the Spaniards re¬ 
garded as their own, it was intended to take immediate 
pofleffion ; they landed in great numbers; the iflanders 
were alfo numerous, became alarmed, made them prefents, 
and iignified a wifli for them to return to their fliips. 
They, however, landed from their boats, on which the 
chief drew a line on the ground with the end of his bow, 
and made figns that the Spaniards mull not pafs that 
boundary. It is faid that Torres (who accompanied 
Quiros), to fhow his contempt of the idea of being re¬ 
trained by barbarians, immediately paffed the line. A 
battle enfued, in which the chief was killed, and all the 
reft fled into the woods. This rafh aft, however, was 
fatal to the views of the Spaniards, who never afterwards 
could prevail on the iflanders to have any friendly com¬ 
munication with them ; and they left this country, after 
fome ridiculous formalities of taking pofleffion in the 
name of Philip III. and founding a city dignified with 
the name of the New Jerufalem. Cook's Second Voyage, 
vol. ii. Burney's Account of Discoveries in the South Sea. 
NEW HOL'LAND, or Nota'sia, is an ifland in that 
part of the globe lately diftinguilhed by the name of 
Aujiralajia, fo large as to be entitled to the appellation 
of a continent. Its length from eaft to well is about 43 
degrees of longitude, in the medial latitude of 25, that 
is, about 2340 geographical miles, or 2730 Britilh. The 
breadth from north to fouth extends from ii°t0 39°, 
being 28°, 1680 geographical, or i960 Britilh, miles. In 
the account of Cook's voyage, its fquare furface is llated 
to be more than equal to the whole of Europe. This, 
however, is an exaggerated eftimate ; becaufe Europe is 
fuppofed to be about 3300 Britifli miles in its utmolt 
length, and its greateft breadth 2350. This defeft is, in¬ 
deed, compenfated by the proximity of many large iflands ; 
and the whole of Aultralafia will probably be found 
greatly to exceed the European continent. This immenfe 
territory was firft difeovered in the beginning of the fe- 
venteenth century, and then called Terra Avjiralis In¬ 
cognita. The firlt difeovery is dated by De Brofles in 
October 1616, when the weftern part was explored by 
Hartog. In 1628, the weftern part was difeovered by 
fome veflels belonging to the Dutch Eaft-India company, 
and called De Witt's Land, from the name of the com¬ 
modore who commanded the fquadron; and in the fol¬ 
lowing year, a Dutch fhip, commanded by Capt. Pelfart, 
was wrecked on this coaft. In 1642 Capt. Tafman was 
fent by the Dutch Eaft-India company to furvey the coaft, 
•who vifited the fouthern part, which he called Anthony 
Van Diemen's Lund, by way of contradiftinftion to Die¬ 
men's Land, on the north coaft. (See Diemen’s Land.) 
Capt. Dampier fell in with this ifland in 1688, and vifited 
it again in 1699. He deferibes the wretched condition 
of the inhabitants, as deftitute of lioufes and clothes; he 
reprefents them as black, tall, thin, ftraight-bodied with 
fmall limbs, great heads, heavy brows, and eyelids half 
clofed for guarding their eyes again ft the flies, which were 
numerous and troublefome. He further deferibes them 
as having large bottle-nofes, full lips, and wide mouths, 
without the two fore-teeth of their upper jaws, and with¬ 
out beards ; long-vifaged, and deftitute of every graceful 
feature in their faces. The next perfon who vifited this 
ifland was Capt. Cook, in 1770, who, by his extenfive 
operations on its eaft fide, left little to be* done towards 
completing the full circuit of it. Between Cape Hicks, 
in latitude 38, where his examination of this coaft began, 
and that part of Van Diemen’s Land whence Tafman 
took his departure, the diftance was not above 5-5 leagues. 
It was highly probable, therefore, that they were con- 
nefted; though Capt. Cook cautioufly fays, that he could 
not determine whether his New South Wales (that is, the 
eaft coaft of New Holland) joins to Van Diemen’s Land, 
or not. But what was thus left undetermined by the 
operations of his firft voyage, was, in the courfe of his fe- 
cond, foon cleared up ; Capt. Furneaux, in the Adven¬ 
ture, during his reparation from the Refolution in 1773, 
having explored Van Diemen’s Land, from its fouthern 
point, along the eaft coaft, far beyond Tafman’s ftation, 
and on to the latitude 38, where Capt. Cook’s examina¬ 
tion of it in 1770 had commenced. We have now, there^ 
fore, a full knowledge of the whole circumference of 
this vaft body of land, though moft of its interior parts 
remain Hill unknown. To the fouthward of lat. 33 or 
34, the land in general is low and level; far northward 
it is hilly, but in no part can be called mountainous; and 
the hills and mountains, taken together, form but a fmall 
part of the furface, in comparifon with the valleys and 
plains. It is rather barren than fertile, though therifing 
ground is checquered by woods and lawns, and the plains 
and valleys are in many places covered with herbage : the 
foil, however, is frequently fandy ; and many of the lawns, 
or favannahs, are rocky and barren, efpecially towards the 
northern part, where vegetation is lefs vigorous than to¬ 
wards the fouth. The inland country appeared to be 
better clothed than the fea-coaft. The banks of the bays 
are covered with mangroves, to the diftance of a mile 
within the beach, under which the foil is a rank mud, 
always overflowed by a fpring-tide ; farther within the 
country, a bog was occafionally found, upon which the 
grafs was very thick and luxuriant, and fometimes a val¬ 
ley occurs, that was clothed with underwood; but the 
foil in general did not feem to admit of cultivation. In 
the interior of the country, immenfe ftrata of coal have 
been difeovered. The coaft, efpecially to the northward 
of 25. S. lat. abounds with fine bays and harbours, where 
vefiels may be fecure from all winds. The country ap¬ 
peared to be well watered by fprings and fmall brooks, 
but to have no large rivers. Of timber-trees there are but 
two forts : the largeft is the gum-tree, which grows over 
the whole country, the gum of which is a deep red, and 
refembles the fanguis draconis, if it be not the fame ; the 
other grows fomewhat like our pines. The wood of both 
is extremely hard and heavy. Others are covered with a 
foft bark, which is the fame that is ufed in the Eaft Indies 
for caulking of fhips. The country furni(hes three forts 
of palms ; the nuts of one of which.operated both as an 
emetic and cathartic with great violence. 
The quadrupeds hitherto difeovered, with very few 
exceptions, are of the kanguroo or opoflum tribe ; having 
their hinder-legs long out of all proportion, when com¬ 
pared with the length of the fore-legs, and a fack under 
the belly of the female for the reception of the young. 
(See Didelphis giga'ntea, vol. vi.) They have rats, and 
dogs of the-jackall kind, all exadlly alike, and a little ani¬ 
mal of the bear-tribe, named womat; and thefe pretty 
nearly complete the catalogue of four-footed animals yet 
known on the fifth continent. There appears, indeed, 
fuch an apparent affinity of the natural objedts in New 
Holland, that Dr. White oblerves, all the quadrupeds 
are like opoflums, all the filh like fharks, and that every 
part 
