During our whole stay, we had either calms or light airs from the eastward. Little or no time, therefore, was lost by my putting in at this place. For if I had kept the sea, we should not have been twenty leagues advanced farther on our voyage. And, short as our continuance was here, it has enabled me to add somewhat to the imperfect acquaintance that hath hitherto been acquired, with this part of the globe.
Van Diemen's Land has been twice visited before. It was so named by Tasman, who discovered it in November 1642. From that time it had escaped all farther notice by European navigators, till Captain Furneaux touched at it in March 1773.[134] I hardly need say, that it is the southern point of New Holland, which, if it doth not deserve the name of a continent, is by far the largest island in the world.
[Footnote 134: This is a mistake, though unintentional, no doubt, and ignorantly on the part of Cook. Captain Marion, a French navigator, and mentioned occasionally in these voyages, visited Van Diemen's Land about a twelve-month before Captain Furneaux. The account of his voyage was published at Paris in 1783, but is little known in England; for which reason, and because of its possessing a considerable degree of interest, Captain Flinders has given an abridgment of that portion of its contents which respects the land in question. This the reader will find in his introduction, p. 83, or he may content himself with being informed, that the description it gives of the natives, etc, generally coincides with what is furnished in the text. Subsequent to this voyage, it may be remarked, Captain Bligh put into Adventure Bay with his majesty's ship Bounty, viz. in 1788: and afterwards, viz. in 1792, the coast of Van Diemen's Land was visited by the French Rear-Admiral D'Entrecasteaux.--E.]
The land is, for the most part, of a good height, diversified with hills and valleys, and every where of a greenish hue. It is well wooded; and, if one may judge from appearances, and from what we met with in Adventure Bay, is not ill supplied with water. We found plenty of it in three or four places in this bay. The best, or what is most convenient for ships that touch here, is a rivulet, which is one of several that fall into a pond, that lies behind the beach at the head of the bay. It there mixes with the sea-water, so that it must be taken up above this pond, which may be done without any great trouble. Fire-wood is to be got, with great ease, in several places.
The only wind to which this bay is exposed, is the N.E. But as this wind blows from Maria's Islands, it can bring no very great sea along with it; and therefore, upon the whole, this may be accounted a very safe road. The bottom is clean, good holding ground; and the depth of water from twelve to five and four fathoms.
Captain Furneaux's sketch of Van Diemen's Land, published with the narrative of my last voyage, appears to me to be without any material error, except with regard to Maria's Islands, which have a different situation from what is there represented.[135] The longitude was determined by a great number of lunar observations, which we had before we made the land, while we were in sight of it, and after we had left it; and reduced to Adventure Bay, and the several principal points, by the time-keeper. The following table will exhibit both the longitude and latitude at one view:
Latitude South. Longitude East: Adventure Bay, 43° 21' 20" 147° 29' 0" Tasman's Head, 43 33 0 147 28 0 South Cape, 43 42 0 146 56 0 South-west Cape, 43 37 0 146 7 0 Swilly Isle, 43 55 0 147 6 0
Adventure { Variation of the compass 5° 15' E. Bay, { Dip of the south end of the needle 70° 15 1/2'.
We had high-water on the 29th, being two days before the last quarter of the moon, at nine in the morning. The perpendicular rise then was eighteen inches, and there was no appearance of its ever having exceeded two feet and a half. These are all the memorials useful to navigation, which my short stay has enabled me to preserve, with respect to Van Diemen's Land.
[Footnote 135: But Captain Flinders has pointed out some other mistakes, especially as to the Storm and Frederik Hendrik's Bays of Tasman, in which, says he, "He has been followed by all the succeeding navigators, of the same nation, which has created not a little confusion in the geography of this part of the world." Let us prevent the perpetuity of errors, by quoting another passage from the same most accurate and skilful navigator. "The bay supposed to have been Storm Bay, has no name in Tasman's chart; though the particular plan shews that he noticed it, as did Marion, more distinctly. The rocks marked at the east point of this bay, and called the Friars, are the Boreal's Eylanden of Tasman; the true Storm Bay is the deep inlet, of which Adventure Bay is a cove. Frederik Hendrik's Bay is not within this inlet, but lies to the north-eastward, on the outer side of the land which Captain Furneaux, in consequence of his first mistake, took to be Maria's Island, but which, in fact, is a part of the main land." A copy of Tasman's charts is given in the atlas to D'Entrecasteaux's voyage; it is taken from Valantyn, and is conformable to the manuscript charts in the Dutch journal. But according to Flinders, it has an error of one degree too much east, in the scale of longitude. Besides, he informs us, "In the plan of Frederik Hendrik's Bay, the name is placed within the inner bay, instead of being written, as in the original, on the point of land between the inner and outer bays." He imagines the name was intended to comprise both, and refers to vol. iii. of Captain Burney's History of Discoveries in the South Sea, for a copy of Tasman's charts as they stand in the original.--E.]