Page:Tasman A Forgotten Navigator.djvu/14

 mountains—its coral reefs—its abundance of fish—its climatic conditions—its flora and fauna—only an island not remarkable as a profitable asset to his employers, the Dutch East India Company.

They lay at Mauritius thirty days, and on the 8th of October they weighed anchor and launched out into the great unknown sea; two tiny barques in search of a great continent. For several days the winds were variable, and the variation of the compass is noted as 23½° West.

For nineteen days after leaving Mauritius the lonely navigators give no sign; only record in the baldest of language that the winds were easterly, or westerly, or variable, as might be.

On the 27th they saw a great deal of duck-weed floating in the sea. A council of the captains and pilot was held, and in their own quaint language it was resolved to keep a man constantly at the masthead to look-out; and whosoever first discovered land, "sands, or banks, under water," should receive a reward of three reals, and a pot of arrack. This no doubt encouraged increased vigilance on the part of the Dutch sailors. We get no glimpse of their life on board, or how they passed the dreary days, with a wild waste of unknown seas around them, and a world of uncertainty ahead.

No mention is made of animal life or any other object of nature which generally attract the attention of travellers in unknown regions. They plodded on in their comfortless crafts, full of dogged, silent courage, amid the cold moaning of Southern gales. There is nothing here akin to the hopes, and fears, and anxieties, and petty jealousies, which agitated Columbus and his companions on their first great voyage of discovery.

After the look-out at the masthead was set, little scraps of information are doled out very sparingly. On November 4th, four weeks out, as they saw more seaweed, it was naturally conjectured that they were nearing land, and that night the ship was hove to.

The journal tells us that seals and thunnies were seen. As the approximate latitude that day was 48° South, and the longitude about 86° East, the nearest land was the island of St. Paul's, 380 miles astern. Cape Leewin was about 1,300 miles ahead. They had passed between St. Paul's and Kerguelan's Islands.

On the 6th they had a westerly gale, with snow, and it is mentioned that it was very cold. This is the first and only note of complaint that we hear from them. Their latitude was 49° South, and long. 94° East. The difference of longitude in these two days gives their speed at 160 miles in twenty-four hours—about 7 knots an hour.

They now begin to think that they are too far south, for the land they are in search of. Another council was called, when it was