"FROM TASMAN TO MARSDEN."

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2337, 19 December 1914, Page 3

"FROM TASMAN TO MARSDEN."

MORE CHAPTERS FROM THE EARLY HISTORY OF N.Z. [By Libee.] "From Tasman to Marsden" is the title-in-chiof of tho latest of Dr. M'Nab's interesting and valuable contributions to the early history of New Zealand. Tho secondary title of the book, which is published for the author by Messrs. J. Wilkie and Co.. Dunediu, is more definite, being "A History of Northern Now Zealand from 1642 to 1818." In previous volumes the author has.dealt mainly with South Island history. In "Murihuku," for instance, we have the history of the South Island for the period from 1642.t0.1829, whilst in "The Old Whaling Days" the same story is brought up to 1840. Dr. M'Nab now makes a commencement with the history of the North Island, bringing it down with, as he Bays, more or less completeness, to 1818. It may bo said, without further preface, that Dr. M'Nab has once again placed all who are .interested' in the early history of our country under a deep debt of gratitude. £o many of the so-called historical works which are published nowadays are mere rechauffes of facta collected by earlier workers in the same field that it is .refreshing to come across, in this latest work of Dr. M'Nab's, so many evidences of the author's original and most painstaking research. 'In no previous _ volume has the material been so rich, eo varied, bo intensely fascinating to the student of history. The wealth of strictly new information which the author has collected in Australia, in Great Britain, and in France, and here presents with such characteristic and laudable orderliness, is surprisingly large.

I The Story of Tasman. I The author commences by retelling ! the story of Tasman's visit to New Zealand, many additional and hitherto unpublished facts being given Throughout the book Dr. M'Nab pays special attention'to .the changes in nomenclature which have taken place in the course of lime. .We have, he admitß, been hardly fair to the Dutch Expedition, for New Zealand has taken the place of its first discoverer's Staten Island; Rocky Cape is now Cape Foulwind ; for Murderers' Bay has been substituted Golden Bay: Abei Tasman's Road is now Admiralty Bay; Zeehaen Bight has no name at all, and few would recognise Capo Egmont under.Tasman's original name of Cape Boorells. _ The only names given by Tasman which are now retained' aro Steep Point, in the South Island; Cape Maria Van Diemen and the Three Kings Islands, in the North. Names have, it is true ; been given indicative of Tasman's visit. For instance, we have Abel Head and Tasman Bay, but according to the author Tasman never saw the Head, nor did his ships sail into the bay. The north-' em cape, he tells us, was called Maria 1 Van Diemen, after the wife of the Gov-ernor-General at Batavia. The Three Kings got their nam© beoause "Tasman' anchored there the sth and left on the 6th January—Epiphany, a; religious festival which commemorates the meeting of the three Magi with the infant Christ." The name New Zealand was not. given to what was first called Staten Island until Brouwer, later on in the year, proved that Staten Land, to the south of South. America, ■ was , a small island and no part of a; continent stretching across to the site of Tasman's discovery. As to Egmontj it was never, says the author, actually seen by Tasman, but Dlio lay of the land was surmised and charted. The author

considers that "the ter.ror inspired in the officers by the massacre of December 19" was the chief contributing cause of the strait not being traversed, the non-landing at the Three Kingß, and the pictunnj;- of the islands as being "peopled with giants," and eventually was the causo of the expedition leaving New Zealand "without the refreshments which wore- so needed by themselves, without tho commercial information which was of so much advantage to the company, and without the geographical knowledge which was of such importance to the world."

The First Coming of the French. The chapter entitled "Cook on the East Coast, 1769," contains comparatively little that is now, but when we come to Dr. M'Nab's account of De Survil'e's visit to Doubtless Bay (1769), we find a narrative of exceptional interest. Dr. M'Nab claims to supply the first full account of De Surville s visit ever written. Hitherto the story of his visit had only been told in a fragmentary way. and the journals of his expedition had not been seen for probably a century . when they were unearthed by the author during a visit to Paris in 1910. The whole of De Surville's "Journal," with those relating to Tasman, Marion, and Furneaux, are being published in Volume II of the "New Zealand Historical Records," edited by Dr. M'Nab, which is to' be issued very shortly'. Do Surville was a daring navigator, and the account of his sojourn on the voyage round the north of New Zealand coast is extremely interesting. He had a narrow escape from disaster at Doubtless Bay, where his vessel was within an ace of going ashore on the heavy rocks on the south-western portion of Chevalier Cove. Many of his men were down with scurvy, and some were put on shore for a while, one of the chiefs specially befriending them. Unfortunately some thefts were committed by the Natives, and when the French commander had lost a dinghy, he headed a party from the Ship, seized one canoe, burnt another, and a Native hut, and took one of the Natives prisoner to the ship. When the Maori arrived on board he was recognised by the chief suTgeon of the Saint Jean Baptiste as_"the chief I who had befriended the sick sailors I When their fate was entirely in his ! hands on shoro." Nevertheless the , chief was not released,: but was put in , irons and carried away by the ship : when the Frenchman loft, as he did, ', I the same evening, for Peru, this course ,; being thought advisable by reason of ! the death of one-third of the crew from ,: scurvy, the loss of anchors and boats, , ;• and ;the necessity for rigging and in- \ ' struments of the ship receiving the clos- ] est attention. The fate of the unfortunate \ Maori, taken from Doubtless Bay, was | peculiarly pathetic. v The indignity of being put in irons so preyed upon his mind that when the Saint Jean BapI tiste was in sight of the Island of San ' Juan Fernandez, on January 27, he died. According to the Frenchmen, poor "Naguinodi's death was hastened by the straits to which all were reduced ' through shortness of water." 'De L'Horne, De Surville's first lieutenant, . says, in his journal, that the only quadrupeds he saw were the dogs, "in ', rather a small number, and the Tats. I The dogs are of an average size, with ', long fine hair. ■ The Natives feed them '. as we do our sheep, and eat them 1 wise." Dr. M'Nab notes the curious fact that De Surville's visit has not ■■ left us a single name. Cape Surville has given place to the North Cape of Cook. There'is no doubt, says the " author, that "Cook sighted and named f North Cape oh December 11, while Dr. " Surville did not see it until five days ' later; but from the ' position of the yessels when the Cape was named, it 1 seems fairly certain that the French ' commander was naming a point a short }■ ; distance-to the; north-of North Cape, and''n i o'w':'kndwii'a's'Ee l rr'Point. If this j view of the position be correct, 'De j Surville ought, even now, to have his s name given to the most northerly point r on the mainland 'of- New Zealand. ••

The Traglo Fate ol Marlon. After a second ohapter'on Cook, dealing specially with Ms survey work, it is the turn, of the second' Frenchman, Marion, who visited the Bay of Islands, and, also, left his bones there, in 1772. Dr. M'Nab secured the use when in ■ Paris of the original journals of lieu- .j tenant of. the ■ Mascarin, the vessel com- , manded by Marion, and of Captain Du f Clesneur, of the store ship Marquis de j Castries, and had copies made of them. , A full translation of these interesting | documents was made by Mr. Wilson, of ] the Parliamentary Library, and will ap- j pear in the second volume of the "Historical Eecords" mentioned above. \ In the meantime, Dr. M'Nab gives us some if the most important passages in tho journals, and his connected narrative of the doings of the French will be found exceedingly interesting. . Like , I)e Surville, Marion experienced, terribly bad weather off Cape Maria van Dienien. At the Bay of Islands he determined to' get new spars for the Marquis do Cas 7 tries, and a working party was established on shore. The Natives were very but soon, began to steal, on one occasion getting" away with a 3001b. anchor. Marion himself _ trusted the Natives implicitly, and reprimanded an. officer who had seized a chief and bound him to a stake. He visited the hill pa of the chief Tacoury, was given prisents, and made to understand he was regarded as a king. "How can you expect me to have a bad opinion of a people who snow me so much friendship?" was the amiable and too, trustful scientist's reply to-tho fears of Lieutenant Rouf. Alas, hut three days later Marion, with two officers and thirteen Bailors off the Mascarin, were suddenly attacked aud barbarously murdered, eleven men from the Marquis- do Castries having previously, the same day, but at another point, met the same fate. In one day,,_ the. expedition lost twenty-six of : its members.' Their comrades 'took a bloody vengeance on the natives, but it is very doubtful whether the actual'murderers were punished. Other Features of the Book. Dr. M'Nab next proceeds to describe the experiences of certain "Stray Visitors to New Zealand"—Furneaux, D'Entrecasteau, Governor King, and others— between tho years 1773 and 1793. He then gives us an interesting .account' of the development of the'timber trade between 1794 and 1801, and the doings of the whalers (1801 to 1806). Next follow chapters on Te Pahi, and the Massacre of the Boyd, follqwed by a description of how tho mission scheme was developed, and of. the coming of Marsdon to the Bay of Islands. ' His i final chapter deals with the history generally, of that settlement between 1815 and 1818. A useful bibliography-, and a most 'exhaustive index complete a work which, as I have said, i 6 one of considerable value, and for which all present and future students of New Zea-i land's earlj; history should be deeply grateful to its painstaking author. • The book has been printed by Meaws. J. Wilkie and Co., of Dunedin, in a' clear typo, on a fair quality paper, and the binding of a sage green. linen is neat and comely, although, as with all. linen or buckram-bound books, a leather title label on the back "would have given it a more, attractive appearance (Price 65.).'r.: ■■.;-'.:■;■: .',.:,. ~.■■.;■.