om landing on its shores, but his expedition spent some weeks along
the coast. His austere Calvinism prevented Tasman from observing in any
special manner the festival of Christmas, but as a Rhinelander he could
not forget the "Three Kings of Cologne," whom legend had associated with
the Magi of the Gospels. On Twelfth Night his ships were abreast of the
small island which lies at the extreme north of the country, and "this
island," wrote Tasman, "we named Drie Koningen Eyland (i.e., Three Kings
Island), on account of this being the day of Epiphany."

Here then, at last, was a spot of New Zealand soil to which a name was
attached which told of something Christian. The name stood alone as yet,
but it contained a promise of the time when the Gentile tribes should
come to Christ's light, and their kings to the brightness of His rising.

For nearly a century and a half the startled Maoris treasured the memory
of the white-winged ships of the Hollander, before they saw any others
like them. At length, in 1769, there appeared the expedition of Captain
Cook. England had now wrested from the Dutch the sovereignty of the
seas, and Cook was looking for the "New Zealand" which appeared on the
Dutch maps, but which no living European had ever seen. More tactful and
more fortunate than his forerunner, Cook was able to open a
communication with the islanders and to conciliate their good-will.

Not yet, however, was England prepared to follow up the lead thus given.
Not until her defeat by the American colonists, which closed the "New
World" against her convicts, did Britain's statesmen bethink them of the
still newer world which had been made known by the explorer. In 1787 an
expedition went forth from England--not indeed to New Zealand, but--to
South-east Australia, where a penal colony was established at Port
Jackson. A strange and repulsive spectacle the enterprise presented, yet
these convict ships were the instruments for carrying on the message
which had been sent out from Jerusalem by apostolic bearers. "Did God
send an army of pious Christians to prepare His way in the wilderness?"
asked Samuel Marsden, the second chaplain of this colony. "Did He
establish a colony in New South Wales for the advancement of His glory
and the salvation of the heathen nations in those distant parts of the
globe by men of character and principle? On the contrary, He takes men
from the dregs of society, the sweepings of gaols, hulks, and prisons.