country and productions near the sea-side had also been examined; though no communication had any where been obtained with the inhabitants. It was known also from Nuyts, that at 133° or 134° of east longitude, commenced a second archipelago; and that the coast began there to assume an irregular form; but in what direction it trended, whether to the south-eastward for Bass' Strait, or northward for the Gulph of Carpentaria, was altogether uncertain.
[* It afterwards appeared, that lieutenant James Grant had discovered a part of it in 1800, in his way to Port Jackson with His Majesty's brig Lady Nelson.]
The great point, then, which required to be ascertained, was the form of the land from longitude 133° to 146° east, and from south latitude 32° to 38½°; comprising a space of two hundred and fifty leagues in a straight line. What rendered a knowledge of this part more particularly interesting, was the circumstance of no considerable river having been found on any of the coasts of Terra Australis previously explored: but it was scarcely credible that, if this vast country were one connected mass of land, it should not contain some large rivers; and if any, this unknown part was one of two remaining places, where they were expected to discharge themselves into the sea.
The apparent want of rivers had induced some persons to think, that Terra Australis might be composed of two or more islands, as had formerly been suspected by the Dutch, and by Dampier; whilst others, believing in the continuity of the shores, thought this want might arise from the interior being principally occupied by a mediterranean sea; but it was generally agreed, that one end of the separating channels, or otherwise the entrance, if such existed, into the supposed sea, would most likely be found in this unexplored part of the South Coast.
Besides the solution of this important geographical problem, something remained to be done upon the parts already seen. The main land behind the first archipelago, as also the inner islands, were yet to be examined for harbours, where refreshment for ships might be obtained; a comparison of the persons and usages of the inhabitants, with those in other parts of this vast country, was desirable; and, although little utility could be drawn from the known productions at the two points visited, it might reasonably be hoped, that an investigation of a coast so extensive, would not fail to produce much useful information.
Many circumstances, indeed, united to render the south coast of Terra Australis one of the most interesting parts of the globe, to which discovery could be directed at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its investigation had formed a part of the instructions to the unfortunate French navigator La Pérouse, and afterwards of those to his countryman D'Entrecasteaux; and it was, not without some reason, attributed to England as a reproach, that an imaginary line of more than two hundred and fifty leagues extent, in the vicinity of of one of her colonies, should have been so long suffered to remain traced upon the charts, under the title Of UNKNOWN COAST. This comported ill with her reputation as the first of maritime powers; and to do it away was, accordingly, a leading point in the instructions given to the Investigator.
SECTION IV. EAST COAST, WITH VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
PART I.
Preliminary Observations.
Discoveries of Tasman;
of Cook;
Marion and Furneaux.
Observations of Cook;
Bligh; and Cox.
Discovery of D'Entrecasteaux.
Hayes.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
Van Diemen'S Land would more properly have been arranged under the head of the South Coast; but the later discoveries here have so intimate a connexion with those on the East, as to render it impossible to separate them without making repetitions, and losing perspicuity in the narrative.
The anxiety of the Dutch government at Batavia, to know how far the SOUTH LANDS might extend towards the antarctic circle, was the cause of Tasman being sent with two vessels, to ascertain this point; and the discovery of Van Diemen's Land was one of the results. It was not, however, the policy of the Dutch government to make discoveries for the benefit of general knowledge; and accordingly this voyage "was never," says Dr. Campbell, "published intire; and it is probable, that the East-India Company never intended it should be published at all. However, Dirk Rembrantz, moved by the excellency and accuracy of the work, published in Low Dutch an extract of captain Tasman's journal, which has ever since been considered as a great curiosity; and as such, has been translated into many languages."*
[* Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels, originally published by John Harris, D. D. and F. R. S. London, 1744. Vol. I. page 325.]
If a judgment may be formed from the translations, Rembrantz must have omitted great part of the nautical details concerning Van Diemen's Land, a defect which is remedied in the following account. It is taken from a journal containing, besides the daily transactions and observations throughout the whole voyage, a series of thirty-eight manuscript charts, views, and figures. The expression by me, which often occurs in it, and followed by the signature Abel Jansz Tasman, shows that if this were not his original journal, it is a copy from it: probably one made on board for the governor and council of Batavia. With this interesting document, and a translation made in 1776, by Mr. C. G. Woide, chaplain of His Majesty's Dutch chapel at St. James's, I was favoured by the Right Hon. SIR JOSEPH BANKS.*
[* I am proud to take this opportunity of publicly expressing my obligations to the Right Hon. President of the Royal Society; and of thus adding my voice to the many who, in the pursuit of science, have found in him a friend and patron. Such he proved in the commencement of my voyage, and in the whole course of its duration; in the distresses which tyranny heaped upon those of accident; and after they were overcome. His extensive and valuable library has been laid open; and has furnished much that no time or expense, within my reach, could otherwise have procured.]
TASMAN. 1642. (Atlas. Plate VII.)
CAPTAIN ABEL JANSZ TASMAN sailed from Batavia on Aug. 14, 1642, with the yacht Heemskerk and fly-boat Zeehaan; and, after touching at Mauritius, steered south and eastward upon discovery. Nov. 24, at four p.m., high land was seen in the E. by N., supposed to be distant forty miles. The ships steered towards it till the evening; when there were high mountains visible in the E. S. E., and two smaller ones in the N. E. They sounded in 100 fathoms, and then stood off from the land, with the wind at south-east.
In the morning of Nov. 25., it was calm; but on a breeze springing up from the southward, Tasman steered for the land; and at five p.m., when it was twelve miles distant, sounded in 60 fathoms, coral bottom: at four miles off, the bottom was fine white sand. The latitude was then 42° 30' south; the mean of all their longitudes 163° 50' east (of Teneriffe apparently); and the compass had no variation. The coast here lies S. by E. and N. by W. It is of an even height; and was named ANTONY VAN DIEMEN's LAND, in honour of the governor-general, "our master, who sent us out to make discoveries. The islands round about, as many of them as were known to us, we called in honour of the Council of India."
The ships stood off again for the night, with a light breeze at S. S. E. On the 26th, the wind was from the eastward, and weather rainy, so that no land could be seen; but its distance was supposed
