belonged to the same mission at Wangha
Roar, when a war which took place amongst
the natives totally destroyed their establishment;
and after enduring great varieties of
suffering they escaped, but lost every thing
they possessed, except the clothes they had
on. We had a very fine wind for nine days,
and on the 29th we saw a gurnet, a sure sign
we were within a hundred miles of land, for
these birds are never seen at a greater distance
from it. True to our anticipations, towards
the afternoon the water became discoloured,
and at midnight we saw the land.
This interesting island, of which we now
got sight, was first discovered by that eminent
and enterprising Dutch navigator, Tasman,
subsequently to the discovery of Van Diemen’s
Land. His voyage from Batavia in
1642, undertaken by order of the then Governor
General of Dutch India, Anthony
Van Diemen, was one of the most important
and successful ever undertaken, for it was
during this voyage that New Holland was
discovered, of which Van Diemen’s Land was
then sunposed to form a part, the extensive
island of New Zealand being supposed to
form another portion.
The slight intercourse of the discoverers
with the natives had so calamitous a termination,
and the exaggerated accounts it was
then a kind of fashion to give of savages,
stigmatised the New Zealanders with such a
character for treachery and cruelty, that their
island was not visited again for upwards of a
century, when the immortal Cook drew aside
the veil of error and obscurity from this unexplored
land, and rescued the character of
its inhabitants from the ignominy which its
original discoverers, the Dutch, had thrown
upon them. This immense tract of land was
imagined by Tasman to form but one island,
and he most unaptly gave it the name of
New Zealand, from its great resemblance (as
was stated) to his own country.
In 1770 Cook discovered a strait of easy
access and safe navigation, cutting the island
nearly in half, thus making two islands of
what had before been imagined but one.
This strait bears his name, and is often tra-
b 2