Page:Tasman A Forgotten Navigator.djvu/19

 Tasman, still short of water, left New Zealand, and steered for more hospitable shores. Captain Cook was the next white visitor to New Zealand. Neither here, nor in Van Diemen's Land, did Tasman make any attempt to explore or give shape to the lines of coast. The scientific explorer was yet to come.

The little expedition sailed away in a north-east direction, and in fifteen days discovered the Friendly Islands, or Tonga Group, lying in 20° South latitude. Here their reception was very different from that of the Maoris. The natives were mild and peaceful, and had no warlike weapons. Tasman, who could no doubt appreciate such, after his recent tragical experience, calls them "a good, peaceful people." They cultivated fields of yams, plantains, and cocoanuts. Their gardens were laid out in regular squares of bananas and other trees, the fruits of which were found very pleasant after the rough voyage. They also manufactured a kind of cloth from the bark of a tree, and altogether their condition was similar to that in which Cook afterwards found them.

They appeared to have no idea of a Supreme Being, but those we term savages are sometimes reticent in expressing their superstitious beliefs to strangers. Tasman notices with curiosity that all the elder women had their little fingers cut from both hands, but the young women had not.

But they were inveterate thieves. Tasman seems to have acted towards them in this respect, with a truly philosophic and Christian spirit. He tells us that "one of the natives was detected in stealing a pistol and a pair of gloves, the property of the skipper. We took the things from him without anger." How different from the cruel and tyrannical treatment such races have often received.

They were a simple and untutored race. We sometimes feel inclined to regret that our civilisation, which is only suited for strong and strenuous nations, should be introduced into an arcadia such as this. That the iron doctrine of the survival of the fittest should have come into action, and that even the very virtues of our boasted civilisation should lead to the deterioration and ultimate extinction of a once happy people.

Here we take leave of our little company of Dutchmen. Their future proceedings have for us no personal or scientific interest. They pursued their leisurely course northward of the Solomon Islands and New Guinea, and arrived at Batavia after a ten months' absence. Tasman finishes his journal characteristically, as follows: "We arrived at Batavia, June 15, 1643. God be praised for this happy voyage.—Amen."

Tasman's great voyage was disappointing to the Dutch East India Company. He had discovered no golden regions, or any people