EXPLORATION BY BEA. 175 New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, but a veiy deep 177S bay " 3 and yet be bad left Adventure Bay only four days before, '^ intending to coast it up along sbore, till we sbould straHsiie- f all in witb the land seen by Captain Cook, and discover Holland wbetber Van Diemen's Land loins witb New Holland." A Diemen'a still more singular opinion was left on record by Captain Cook after be bad passed some days in Adventure Bay, on bis tbird voyage in January, 1 777. As if be felt it necessary to offer some reason for not baving made furtber explora- tions wbile on the coast, be wrote : — ^' Van Diemen's Land cook'a bas been twice visited before " ; (by Tasman and Fumeaux) .* ^^
- ' I need bardly say tbat it is the soutbem point of New
Holland." Wben be sigbted Point Hicks, iu 1770, be was in doubt as to wbetber Van Diemen's Land formed part of New Holland or not, and accordingly said : — '^ I cannot determine wbetber it joins to Van Diemen's Land or not." Between tbat date and 1777 be seems to bave made up bis mind on the point, relying on the report made by Furneaux. Tbese are curious instances of the indifference felt witb respect,to the exploration of the coast of New Holland. Tbe North-west discovery of a nortb-west passage, or a supposed continent southern towards the Soutb Pole, was looked upon as the only object tbat could seriously deserve attention on the part of the Oovemments as well as the great geograpbers of the time. In 1745, an Act of Parliament offered a reward of £20,000 for the discovery of a passage from the Nortb Atlantic to tbe Nortb Pa^jific tbrougb Hudson's Bay. Wben it became known tbat no sucb passage existed, anotber Act, passed in 1 776, offered the same reward for the discovery " of any nortbem passage for vessels by sea between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans." Cook's second voyage was made for speculations tbe purpose of determining wbetber the unexplored part SnfphwS!*' of the Soutbem bemispbere be only an immense mass of water, or contain anotber continent " — a question of specu- lative geography, wbicb, as be states in bis introduction,
- And by Captain Marion in 1772 ; but the acconnt of his voyago waa
not pabliahed in Paris until 1783. — Voyage towards the Soath Pole, p. xziii. Digitized by Google
