Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 7, 2025
By our Longitude we are a degree to the Westward of the East side of Van Diemen's Land, according to Tasman, the first discoverer's, Longitude of it, who could not err much in so short a run as from this land to New Zeland; and by our Latitude we could not be above 50 or 55 Leagues to the Northward of the place where he took his departure from. THURSDAY, 19th.
The Dutch had a claim of priority in discovery through the early voyages of Tasman, but they attempted no colonization and Dutch sea power was too weak to make good a technical claim in the face of England's navy.
A young man, Tasman by name, who had been scornfully rejected by a Dutch nabob as the suitor of his daughter, resolved to prove himself worthy of the lady of his heart.
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.
Tasman continued doing good service for the Dutch East India Company until his death at Batavia about 1659.
It was supposed that Tasman did not hunt now, and that Lupus hunted for him, but venturesome creatures of the wild, who had dared to climb the upper slopes of Mount Desolation, claimed to have seen Tasman foraging there after insects and grubs; and as for Lupus, his hunting was sufficiently well known to all on the lower ground.
That name had been given it by Tasman, who discovered it in 1642; from which time it had escaped all notice of European navigators, till Captain Furneaux touched at it, in 1773. It is well known that it is the southern point of New Holland, which is by far the largest island in the world; indeed, so large an island, as almost to deserve the appellation of a continent.
This place the English gentlemen concluded to be the land discovered by Tasman, and which had been named by him Cape Maria van Diemen. The lieutenant, finding the inhabitants so intelligent, inquired further, if they knew of any country besides their own.
On the whole, therefore, it appears there are three continents already tolerably discovered which point towards the south pole, and therefore it is very probable there is a fourth, which if there be, it must lie between the country of New Zealand, discovered by Captain Tasman, and that country which was seen by Captain Sharpe and Mr.
In this voyage Tasman discovered an extensive country lying to the south of New Holland; in giving a name to which, he immortalized his patron, by calling it "Van Diemen's Land," having no suspicion at the time that it was an island. It was not till the year 1798 that it was discovered to be such; as in all the old maps and charts it is represented as part of the main land of New Holland.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking