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Updated: June 14, 2025
We soon shot past this head, and from the course we had made, I was convinced it was Tasman's Head, which is the eastern point of a bay, of which the south cape is the western, and was called by Tasman, Storm-Bay. The first land we had seen was within the bay, on the east shore, not so far out as Tasman's Head; and the western land, under which we wore at half past six, was the south cape.
He failed to prove the existence of Torres Straits; but to him, it is generally agreed, is due the discovery and naming of the Gulf of Carpentaria Carpenter, in Tasman's time, being president at Amsterdam of the Dutch East India Company and the naming of a part of North Australia, as he had previously named the island to the south, after Van Diemen. From this voyage dates the name "New Holland."
He had just discovered Tasmania, and was destined, ere returning home, to light upon Fiji and the Friendly Islands. So true is it that the most striking discoveries are made by men who are searching for what they never find. In clear weather the coast of Westland is a grand spectacle, and even through the dry, matter-of-fact entries of Tasman's log we can see that it impressed him.
The south-east coast of Van Diemen's Land, from the solitary Mewstone to the basaltic cliffs of Tasman's Head, from Tasman's Head to Cape Pillar, and from Cape Pillar to the rugged grandeur of Pirates' Bay, resembles a biscuit at which rats have been nibbling.
After passing Tasman's Head, we kept our wind still, and carried sail, in order, if possible, to weather Maria's Islands, which lay about six leagues to the north-east, for we had no sooner got round the last head, than the wind headed us, and we fell off from east by south to east by north; had this change taken place a little sooner, it must have proved fatal to us.
These documents are all that have been found, and a diligent search of geographers still leaves undiscovered Tasman's original narrative. The 1688 copies were probably known to Dampier when he sailed in the Roebuck, and he was, likely enough, supplied with specially made duplicates by the naval authorities.
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 been ever since considered as a very great curiosity; and, as such, has been translated into many languages, particularly into our own, by the care of the learned Professor of Gresham College, Doctor Hook, an abridgment of which translation found a place in Doctor Harris's Collection of Voyages.
In speaking of the consequences of Captain Tasman's voyage, it has been very amply shown that this part of Terra Australis, or southern country, has been fully and certainly discovered.
Her highest latitude was 57 degrees 10 minutes south, where the weather proved intolerably cold. They were very kindly treated by the Dutch governor, and amply supplied by the merchants at the Cape, where they remained seven weeks. Their passage back was effected by Van Diemen's Land, near which, and close under Tasman's Head, they were in the utmost peril of being wrecked.
Passing from Cape Bougainville to the east of Maria Island, and between the numerous rocks and shoals which lie beneath the triple height of the Three Thumbs, the mariner is suddenly checked by Tasman's Peninsula, hanging, like a huge double-dropped ear-ring, from the mainland. Getting round under the Pillar rock through Storm Bay to Storing Island, we sight the Italy of this miniature Adriatic.
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