ABEL TASMAN AND HIS JOURNAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2170, 26 September 1895, Page 50

ABEL TASMAN AND HIS JOURNAL.

Being the first portion of a paper read he fore tlu Otago Institute on Tuesday, 10th September, by Dr Hocken, F.L.S.

In fulfilment of & promise made during the last session of this Institute I hsive now the pleasure of laying before you a translation, from the original Dutch, of that portion of Tasmau'a Journal relating to the discovery of Netr Zealand. I shall also give an account of tho journal generally, of the circumstances under which it wu written, and of Tasman himpeli'. During the latter part of the sixteenth and the earlirr part of the seventeenth centuries the Dutch were pre-eminently tho rulers of the sea. They had superseded the Spanish and tho Portuguese, who so long had been in the van of maritimo discovery and adventure. Their ships were better built, found, and commanded than had ever been the fact before ; their navigation laws and rules were for the time of quits an advanced kind ; and with that quiet pers 'verance and steady courage, which, under the name of Dutch phlpgm, have always been characteiistic of tho nation, their merchants had secured and held the trade of the world. England's day wa* then but in high dawn, and though now she is, and for long has been, the mistress of the sens, at that time ehe held but a reond if net third place. Early in tho seventeenth century Holland penetrated into the Indian Archipelago, and amidst its cumberlos fertile islands developed amazingly the wealth of her trade. In 16 L 0 xhe founded the capital of Ba.tavia on the island of Java, and though surrounded by hostile na f ive princes or chiefs she maintained her pobition and security in this centre. The affiira of this Du^'h East India Coinp.ny were managed by a Go.'kinoL'ke-ieral and Coumil, who by persistent courage and enterprise maintained in those parts of the world that renown which their country men had won el ewh' re. At no period in its history van the C.mpany so prosperous and flout ishing as between tho years 1630 and 1630. That halfcentury closed, it became iuvolved in the qiwrrels aud politico of the naive Javanese Stc-its, aud then commenced its commercial ruin In 1636 Antony vau Diercen was appointed Governor-general, retaining oflicj for nearly ten years, aud no Governor equalled him iv energy and sogtcifcy. It was during his rule that Tasman's voyage, of which wo are now to speak, was undertaken T'isman wan born in 1602 or 1603 at Ho >m, in thj north of Holland, a town on tho borders of the Zuyder Zee, where so many bold sailors wereb-el, aad where, it h-«s been stat» d, descendant) of his family still remain. But, indeed, we know little of Tasman's pei soual history beyond that contained in hiß j"u--nal. Iv this he has truly bequeathed us his monument, though underneath it lies little more than a shadow. An old ( ngtaving of-him is to be * een in th» Cliristcuurcu Museum, and it would seem -hat some P"ißjnal description is given by M. Duzy in •' B' jdragen de Taal- Laud- en Volken-kuudn van Nederlaudsch Indie " ('• Contributions to the Language, Country, and People of DutchIndia"), sth series, vol. 11, p. 308, but of this I know nothing. He dit-d at B*tavia in 1659. By direction of Van Diemfn he was despatched in 1639, and i-oou after his arrival in the settlumout, under the command of Captain Mattbys Kwast, who was instructed to proceed through the Western Pacific to the Philippines, and there to make search for tho fabled Gold aud Silver Islands. These are now known as the Roniu Islands east of J.ipan. This was most probably Tasman's first voyage under the auapice3 of the compauy. At its close he sailed iv the Indian seas until 1642, and then commenced his great yojage of discovery. Here it will bs interesting to contrast the mode of preßen'< day sailing with th&t whereby those who went down to the' sea in ships in Tusman's time made their truly perilous voyages. Now navigation has bean redu-ed to a fine art as well ai a precise science, f... due. aud so prtc'sa tint it may now be gfiieral<> affirmed thHtdi<*-tera»; sea is the result of carelessness, often of gross carelessness. Those floating pal ices which now cross the waste of waters in every direction arc timed to reach their destination with tho punctuality and almost the speed of a railway train. A fow days or weeks a' most of safe and pleasatit travel now represo t. the weary months of discomfort, dangers, n rtl Mid imaginary, and the scourges of t-curvy and dyseijt ry, which were too often the lot of tln?e who led the way. All this was flrdt rendered possible by the invmtion of tho3O instruments— the sextant and chronometer— which now daily tell the sailor his exict position on the trackless ocean. Add to theße his accurate chart aud nautical tabks, and what ovil can befall him ut'lejs through great neglect or rare misfortune ! When undertaking early vo^agts of discovery it was u'ual that two, three, or more vessels should form the fleet. This was a precaution in all ways wise, contributing as it did to mutual courage, safety, and companionship. The commanders and officers formed a committee— or council, as they termed it, — and whenever any difficulty or dilemma arose, the members of this council were summoned by signal aboard the principal vessol of the expt dition, and there decided what was be*t to be done. These occasions seem to have been frequent, as we can well fancy. The vessels, with their high poop, high forecastle, and round bows, must have lot ked picturesque enough. They were greatly foreshortened, too, for it was considered that a vessel whoso length much exceeded its breadth was absolutely unpafe and iut unlikely to capsizs; Four or flvr k>>ot« »n hour was good uv.-r»ge sailing ; much more frequently the dißtmiee traversed in a day did riot excead 50 or 60 miles. The tonDage of the*e early vessels varied much ; some measured 300 or even 400 tone, but the perils of many a long voyage were encountered in little vessels of no more than 40, 60, or 120 tons burthen. The dietary scale in Tasman's time was something as follows :— To each man, one good cheese for the whole voyaga ; 31b of biscuit, a quartern of vinegar, and iib of butter per week ; oa Sanday, fib meat ; on Monday

and Wednesday, 6oz of salted cod; on Tuesday and Saturday, -Jib of stochfWi; on Thursday and Friday, \\\> of bacon with grey pea* ; and at all tinT-s as mnch oatmeal aa could bs eaten. Tho?o were nob the days of ojffee, tea, or teeto'allism, but of strong rum and arraok, which were regnlarly distributed, and whoever was so lucky as first to descry land from the masthead had his ration doubled. The imtruments and methods used for determining the position at sea, the latitude and longitude, were of the most primitive and, one might say, ineffective kind. Cartography was in its iufnncy, and the few charts that were placed in the sailors' hands were projected on principles so rr-gardlesj of the proportions of the sphere ac to bo absolutely misleading and dangerous. The simple device of the log, for measuring the rate of sailing through the wator, was introduced but 20 years prior to Tasraan's tirae. B -foro this it was usual to estimate this amount by guess. Tho sun's altitude and the relative position of the h'avenly bodieß, which are now calculated with »uch accuracy by means of the sextant, and which, with the chrono- [ meter, give the true position, were then ascerI twined by very crude instruments — the astrolabe I and, later, t!io crosa-fit'iff, specimens of which I I exhibit. The Astrolabe was made of a circular ' piec; of metal 7in in diameter, divided into quadrants, one of which was divided into degrees, and suspended lieely, as ono might suspend a watch by its* ring. A broad pointer or index l£in wide traversed tho face of tho irtf^trumtttit, and was divided through the exact middle of its length by a line termed the line of confidence. Close to psc'i ext emity of this index and perpct diculiu t'i i1;i 1 ; n snaH plate was ' iisf d, with Wo sm-ill \v 1 - <.ne la g>T thin the oHi (> r, but bo f .h bei.ig exactly over t»ic lino of j couful-nco These were sights, and when the oHjecfc viewed was seen in ex\cb line through them — the sun or moon or a star — the angle was read off. The cross - staff, which waa probably used by Tasman, was a squared rod of wood 3""t iv length, upon which were dnnoted angles and degives, and having a sighb at the eye end Upon this, by means of a slot, slid at right angles a scoond rod of wood about 2ft in length, having a sight fit eanh terminal, and through thesa sights the object was viewed, the object rod, if we nrvy so call ifc, being adjuntod upon tho other, wlrch was pointed plaue to the horizon, nnl the ang'e rend off. Iv this rough waj vra< t^o sum's altitude taken, and probably a rou^h attempt was often madu to laks what sailors call a lunar distance. An I improvement was made on this cross-staff by adding oue or two shorter transoms for reading stoftllftr atig!e3. On some of those odd frontispieces which embellish ancient atlases or gf ogrHphies may be »een a sweet little cherub • holding aloft an emblem of the er<>Fß appari oritly, but really this cross-s'aff. A him 'red years aftor the introduction of tho cnn'-'itff came Dr Hadlcy's quadrant, wlrch has developed into the perfect; s»xtant of to-day. But with his tables of declination, which were even then calculated, and this simp'.e instcumonr, Tasman aud his brethren ma-iaged to toke their latitudes with romarkI able ftfcuraoy, as is evident by inspecting the coast l>ne of his Staten Land, which I have J placed side by side with that of our New ZeaI land. But how he sucoeeded with hi* longitudes is not so clear. A«j we well know, longitudes can only be calculated parfectly by knowing the difference of tirno at two meridians, and this uiu-st be gained by the aid of r-rcurate tiinokecpors. In Tanman'H day the vev> few cl'-cks and watches iv « xi-ifmce wore but of little use iv keeping the time. Tii problem of longitudes at se* was always otifidored of the utmost importance amongst maritime nations. Even at the beginning of this OBntury it was thought that it would never be solved owing to the difficulty or impossibility of ever constructing watshes that would k«;ep perfect thna. As indicating this tentiuienfc, the fo called Board of Longitude advertised, at the beginning of last century, in Que n Anne's reign* that they would jive rewards of £10,000, £20,000. and £30,000 respectively to him who should discover a meaus of taking longitudes at sea to within GO, 40, and 30 geographical miles. Precision within these limits wju not thought of or expected. This liberal offer stimulated invention, and Mr John Harrison, an ingi nious mechanician, who for years had devoted hi'nsclf to making imp'ovcmpnts in clocks and w.itche?, succeeded iv 17G4 in gaining thi prize of £20,000 with a watch — a chronometer, a<? we should now call it — which was twice carried on a voyage to the West Indies. The time kept was admirable and ensured an accuracy of longitude to within 10 or 12 miles. One of Harrison's watches— which, by-he-bye, cost from £80 t) £100 a-pieco — was carried by Captain Cook on his flreb great voyage of discovery. Messrs Wales and Bayly, who accompanied Cook's -gecond expedition, state iv their astronomical obs rvations of the voyage, publiehed in 1777, that the longitude could then be computed to within th<; fifth or sxth of a degree — that is, 10 or 12 geographical miles. The e->rlie-t account I can discover of the u*e of timi-ke-.pers at sea is in 1663, when two watjb.es were used together on the 6ame vessel. The re<ult was not satisfactory, as may be learned from the manuscriptiu the Sloane collection of the British Museum. It is but within the last few years, comparatively cpenking, that chronometers hive been in universal use. The last antiquated mnrino instrument to which I shall refer, as used in Tasman'B time in the handglass. These were constructed of different sizes so as to measure periods of four hours, one hour, and half an hour. The survival of them &t sea is to be seen in the 28-seoond log-gla^s, used when the log is t tken ; and on the kitchen mantelpiece in boiling eggs. Hour glasses were used in the last century in churches, placed on the pulpit ledge in view of the congregation, where they regulated j the length of the sermon. Much improvement has been effected in this direction during the last few year?, the length of sermons now being »b mt 20 mi mfces. The time at sea was roughly kept by the hslf-hour glass which was always in sight; of the Btferfem*n. When the last graiDs of sand had run out, he reversed the glass, striking a bell at the same time as a mark of the time. This was ivpcated until tho glass bad been turned eight timei and the boll struck eight times. Thus four Hours had elapsed, the watch was completed, and the new watch took oh&rge of the ship. And so Taßmao in denoting time, speaks of ea many

glasses in each and such a watch, thas threft glassoi in the morning w*tch would be thret half-hours past 4 a.m. — that is 5 30. Theie sand-g'a;Bes were made with the greatest oara and accuracy. The upper and lonrer factions were separated by a thin metallic plate per* f urated with a floe pinbolo through which tfid Rand ran. The sand was carefully eeleetcd and dried ; ironsand, I think, being preferred, as having a rounder, more regular grain, and there* fore affording tho least faction. When the running of this sand through the pinhole had beon finally adjusted and timed, tho whole was hermo'ically closed by lushing, and was further protected by a wooden framework. Now it is quite possible, and not unlikely, that conjointly with devd reckoning Tafmau took hit longitude by tho help of a four-hour glass of this description set agoing at noon when ho waa leaving port. Of I course, there would bo same error due to the expansion or contraction of the glass, or to failure in turning at the exact moment when the last grains of sand had disappeared. Still with all faults this was the only method ot securing any roßSonablo approach to fited meridional time. If Tasman did not adopt ifc then the only other way of cstimiting hi« daily longitude was by means of dead reckoning— that is, by reckoning the number of miles sailed over an east or west couraa in 24 hour*. This rough method has bsen us 3d by sailors for centuries, aud is us'^d at the present time whenever a olouded sky interferes with a due observation of the sun. It is untrustworthy aft the best, from causes which are very evident. A vessel may tnako much lee or lost way from some ocean current which insensibly drifts her oat of her course — and there are other sources of error. Hence we shall not ba surprised to find that whilst Tasaaau'a latitudes are very correct, bis longitudes are of'en connidcrably at fault— evou co much as 3Jeg or 4.10g. At will be observed in this map of New Z aland, upon which I have projected his daily course, ha is wrong on the average aboub 3ilfg W.— that is about 170 miles fiom the coa%t. This va*t dimirepancy will exhibit very clearly tho imperfection of nautio&l methods 250 ye us ago, and th*t Queen Anne's Board of Longitude might well bo content with any means wiwreby the position at gea cjuid be known niihin 30 or 40 miles of the true one. B :foro the discovery of America the so-railed New World, the westernmost point of tbe then known world was the Island of Fcrro, one of the Canaries, and it w&s thereto c selected by old geographers as tho prims meridian from which all oth'r mpridiana were calculated. Afterwnrds nnd somswh&t b.foro Ta-inan'ti tiruo tho Peak of Teu'-r ffo. fclso in the C.uiariea, was selosted, prob»t.ly becausa of i>b conspicuous height. It is from t.'iit mrridiin then that Tasman gives his longitudes. In the present day all nations agree, as A mut'.er of givat convenience, to cilcuUte ffom Greenwich, with the exception of tbe French, who, whilst notatiug th>ir meridians from P*ris, novci tholess add the Greenwich equivalent. Whilst Tttsinan gives, in both chart and Journal, his p-nitlons, ai deduced from the P^ak of Tenrriff.', th-iy must really be computed from the Is'aud of Mauritius, which, as we t h&U presently see, w*s his finil poiut of departure aftor leaving B.itavia. So that to reduce his longitudes to those of Greinwioh we must subtract, say, 21deg 2cniu from them — made up of, fay, 16.Ul'>g for Toneriffe »ud 4M"g prror for Mnir.tiu3. We then have leiu^iniog wh*t m^y bo called personal error c*'isoi by inability to cvlculatc h's p >sition exactly, and which, aa hue been sown, ottan amounts to 3deg or 4df>g. Another explanation should here be mide; Ilia distances ssiled are in Dutch miles, 15 of which are equal to ld*g A Dutch mile is equal to about four English, co that if Ttunnn gives as his day's work 20 miles, we should reckou thtt he had sailed 80. Iv making this translation I luvo preferred to give T*Bmau's own unaltered details ; those who d-jtire to make tho corrections c*n rio so from the data I have given, Iv a paper read boforo thin institute last year I gave some ' account of Tnsm&u's Journal and showed that it had never bsen edited and published iv its entirety until so recently as tho year 1860, when Herr Jacob Swart, of Amsferdam, g»ve it to the world in the original old Dutch, which not only differs greatly from modern Dutch but is apparently a diilt-cb. From this edition this translation has been made, and I think ib may be t'u'y said that it is the firsb full translation hitherto made. It was with great !•!«> mre I It anil, a few weeks ago tluo the fir v of Hfiuriob Miil!«r, of Ain*t-r>lam, i» now preparing to publish a limited number of copies of the full text in Englith. This will bo as valuable ns iub roting. Then, as good things sometime* come together, I saw recently a few sheets of what apparently i* to be the fufcnre "New Zealand Ro\der" for me in our primary school*. Thene Bheets contained eo>ne parts of T>u<ra*n's Journal, evid'ntly tranalated from the Sw\rt edition. The portion relating to New Zealand ended, unfortunately, with the ma*saore in Murderers' Bay. I do not know who the translator is, but bis work has been done in the most competent and accomplinhed way, and it is to be hoped that he will complete it. The translation is sometimes not quite lit r-<l, and that in parts which would uut bo • b .imd by a literal reu^^ring. Nor do I uuderstaud the principle adoptei in giving the longitudes ; these are not Ta.i man's, even with the data for corrections above given, nor are they the true longitudes. The distances run are given in English miles. Ho then all the previous renderings of Tauman's Journal prior to that of Jacob Swavb in 1860 h&ve been incorrect in various particulars, the c\ii f one being that of exc«s9ive abridgement*. As regards the bibliography of these, \ cannot do bettsr tban refer to my paper in the " Tr«n»actious of the New Zealand Inatitute "for 1894, p 618. In his edition, Jacob Swart prefixes to the journal & pub ications of all the documents relating to it. These are of considerable value and interesb, and were di covered in the old f<>lian\i and letter buoks of the compauy, presumably at the same t'me bhut the long lo*b j >uru*l waa found and forwarded from Batavia to Amsterdam. They con.ii-t, first, of a letter from Governor van Dit-m >n and his Council to the Counc'l of Stventeen at Amsterdam, apprising them of Taxman's departure on his im iortant expedition ; second, of a letter of instructions to Tasman and his ohief officers ; aud, third, of other letters and papers giving an acount of previous d'suoveries and directions, which it was no doubo thought important that Tasman should have with him. The instructions are far too lengthy to lay -before you here. But they testify imat favourably to the wisdom and foresight of Governor van Dinraen and his Couucil, in all matters relating to the geographical knowledge of tha time, in fitting out the ships, in suggesting suitable measures in cas-- nf accident or failure, md generally in their-fulu'i"B of sagacious advice and command. Even tj-day they would well serve as models to copy. Tha vessels of tha expedition were two, the ship or yaohti Heemskercq, aud a smaller ve c sul, the fly bo at Z-ehicn, the former having a crew of 60, the Jatter of 50 men. They were victualled for 12 months. Towards a better understanding of the journal I would here explain that Ta man brgins and ends his day at midnight, that is ib is the same as oar civil day. He reckons his course *nd the distance run from noon to noon,

*t which time he took the latitude and longitude. His watches were : The day, or morning, watcb, from 4to 8 ; the forenoon, or noon, watch, f corn 8 to 12 noon ; the afternoon watch, from 12 to 4 ; the flat-foot or, an, we call them, the dogwatches, from * to 6 and 6 to 8 ; the flrst watch, 8 to 12 taidnight ; fud the second, or hound watch, 12 midnight to 4 iv the morning. It is curi us that 6f all Ttutonic-speakinji sailors the English alone use the terra dogwatch as signifying the hours between * and 8 p.m. Other Teutons use the equivalent hund-hande, or bondewaeht, &8 lignifying the second wntoh — that between midnight and 4 a.m. ; and to express their dogwftfohes, between 4 and 8 p.m., th«y use platt-fuis, platt-fodeo, or plafc-voet, meaning flat-foot. Tha neo-Latin, or Italicbpesk'iDg, sailors had no such words as dog watob, or flat-foot, but spoke of the second watch, or of the watch from 4 to 6 . or 6 to 8 in the evening. Ido not Isdow the Underlying meaning of these words, but can fancy they contain the idea of the most restful pait of a ship's day whe%a dog would be saffiolent guard, and when any work on deck could be done without running : all heel and toe, as the pedestrians hare it — * fist-foot. The vessels wiled from Batavia on the 14th August 1642, with instructions to make in the first instance for the island of Mauritius, vihere they were to take in fresh provisions and otherwise refit. At this time Mauritius b*louged to the Dutch, and was a convenient recruiting place for th&ir vewelo as they sailed to and fro b;tw«m Holland aad tho Bat*vian settlement. Tasm&n coaim«nocs Ihua : — •' Journal or dercription by me, Abel Jansz. Tfteroan, of a voyage made from the oity of Bat»via, in the E-wt Ind-'ea, for mtvkißg discoveries of the unknown Soutbi&nd, in the year 1642, tha 14th Augnftfc. May God Almighty be phased to give hftreto hi» blessing. Aaitfn." The ftfauririus — adiftfemcco of about 3000 mi'eß— was reached, after a sth ndid run for those d&yo, on the sth , of September. This would give au average j of about 120 miles a day sailed. Here a month's stay was made during which the vessels were thoroughly refltted, and pigß, gouts, wildfowl, lirewcod, and fresh water weie brought on board. Thus fortified at all points tb«-y Jefc Mauritius oafcho Bth of October, "for wh'cb,"«ays Tasman, " the Lord be praised aud thanked." The course w&* now S. aud S.E. On the 27th a considerable quantity of weed was seoo which indicated proximity to laud. A couucil was held, and it was determined to keep a man constantly at the topmast h>ad on the lookout, and whoevor first discovcied Ijmhl, rock?, or sho&ls should bo rewmded with three r< als aud an extra pot of arrack or rum. Nothing, however, was seen for nrarly a month and until the 24th of November, wlr n Tasman maOc bis first dfoiovtry, that of Van Dumsn's Laud, so called by him after hin patron tho Bitavian Governor. The (lisfcaßce thao run from Mauritius was nearly 60C0 miles, the average daily run bring ab<u f 140 miles. He named many of the bays an^ ii-jadlanda in honour of various members of tb<» O»unoH, i;»m*s retained to this day, such as L' edwrjek Henry and Storm B»y, Maria's Islma4, ho. Ho explored here until tho 4th of Derrtnl er, and saw at a distance tome of the ink*biunta, smoke rising in tho woods, steps ' oat into the trees with flint axes whereby the natms ctinbed up them to seatch for birds' nesfc,' 9pec>mens of gum, and so on. Before L-iving Van Diomcu's L'-nd on the. sth of DeccDtbfi', a post was erected in Prfdtrick H«uiy Bay, with a flag flying on it. The rewelfl were again at sea on the sth of D«c*iaber. A cour.oil was called, when it was agn ed that the course held should still be cne due eas*, and that it should bo kept for 26dcg of further longitude. If ne further !a» d waa fallen in with, a northerly course should be shaped for home. .Eight d»ya later (on the ' 13th of Decnuber) Staten Land, or New Zealand, was discovered. Aa the distance run from Van Diemea's Land was about 1000 miles. it it evident thib the averngo snilhig rate, of 125 miles a day had been caaintaited. It will rave interruption in Tttsnoan's narrative, and rond'-r ifc more inbeJligiWe, if at this point I profr.es a few fuxlhor words of explanation. The Utid — "th« great high land," as Taxman calls ithe would flist sec between HokiUka and Okarito, and it is not too fanciful to s*y th*t that great mountain wb ; ch 250 years later was called by his name was one of the first sight* he saw on the wild Weet Coast. Somewhat further north he dt scribes that low point known to in as Captaiu Cook's Cape Foul-vind, with it* outlying steep rochs or cliff* — iho Str-eple*. Wc*tporfc is not far from this poiufc. North of this, Ta»man says, "the laud makes a great bight." This is the K^ramea Bight Th-=-n c*»« the " furthermost point, which slood out so boldly that we had no d-nibt ifc was the j extratne point." This is now Captain Cook's • Cape Farewell, with the lopg ppit of sand running frun it, upon which is a lighthouse. Next in order is fch&t bay of tragic iuttrebt called by Tftunau Murderer*', but now known as Golden Bky, in which is tho town-hip of Col'singwood. The Ecene of the tragedy lies cloie to Farapara, where at this moment a new and far different interest feai ariien in the fact that a great' and pfnc^ful trade is expected to spring up in cmi-ccU n with the misses of hematite wl'ich lie arouud Jlvs shore. Thankfully escaping from this dreadful spot, Tasm»n tacked about in what he called Zechaen's Bay, but which in truth was the north-west portion of Cook Strait. As we shall presently see, Ta«man himself suspected that there wai a psss'ge through. Proceeding north, Cape Egmont was seen, and was named C»bo Ticttr Boreels, after one of the Dutch E.S. Council. No reference is made to the mountain. The high mountain seen on the 27th in lab. 38, ard lak->w at first for an island, would probably be Mount K»rioi, bounded as it is to the north by Whaiogaroa-Harbour and south by Kitwhia and Aolea Hatbours. The Three Kicgs Islands were Tasmau's point of departure from New Zealand. This name was given from the feet that the vesseh anchored there on the slh of January — the eve of tho Epiphany. You may remember the incidents connected with this religious festival, which commemorated tho meetipg of the three Magi or Wiee Men of the East with the infant Christ. Their cames were Kaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. The fable s*ys that their bones were removed to the Cathedral at Cologne, where they still rest, and where, as in Tasman's time, they are still venerated by all faithful observers of old Christian legend*. I may here rtnmk tbat iv all probability the interesting procsa of namegiving did not take place until after Tasmau's return to Bat* via. The beat description of the Three Kings known to me ie that given by Mr Cheeseman, the curator of the AucVUnd Museum, in the volumes for 1887 and 1890 of the " New Zealand Transactions." Mr. Cheeseman mado many additions fo our natural history knowledge of those islands, and he ateo recognised that part of the Great King upon which Tasman's crew attempted to land when searching for water and vegetables. It is much to be regretted that Swart docs not reproduce Taßman'a sketches. la a provoking way he says that theeo are to bo found in *' ValeLtijn." Valentijn'a abridged copy of the Journal waa published in 1726, and to this rare Work the reader is referred. It is to be hoped that this oroisßion will be rectified iv Miiller's ■forthcoming edition, Tasman's intercourEC with I

the natives was bub of a few hourn 7 daration ; yet it was sufficiently long to enable him to give a good personal description. It is therefore curious to find that ho makes no reference to the adornment of the tattoo. Does this indicate i(s non-existence 250 years ngo ?