passage to regions deemed
more important, touched at Van Diemen's Land, and thus rapidly developed
its geography. After Tasman, the next visitor was Captain Marion, of the
_Mascarin and Castries_, who in 1772 arrived from the Mauritius, in
search of the "southern continent," then the grand object of nautical
inquiry, and anchored in Frederick Hendrik Bay, the 4th March. The visit
is chiefly memorable for a fatal collision with the natives, who,
according to the French, exhibited uncommon ferocity. On his stepping on
shore they offered Captain Marion a fire stick, which he supposed a
ceremony of friendship; but when he lighted a heap of wood, as he
imagined in compliance with their custom, they retired to a hill, and
threw a shower of stones. The French fired their muskets, and the
natives fled: their pursuers found in the wood a dying savage--the first
victim of European intrusion. Marion and some others were injured
slightly by the missiles of the natives, and a black servant was wounded
by a spear.

The remarks they made are of no great value: they entered the country,
and saw everywhere the effects of fire, which they supposed was intended
to drive wild animals from the coast. They could not discover a tree
suitable for a mast, and were unsuccessful in obtaining water. A small
map, which sketched the form of the coast with considerable exactness,
accompanied the account of this voyage, and tended to awaken the French
to the importance of these seas.

The next visit was accidental, but most important: Captain Cook, in
1772, left Great Britain to explore the icy region near the Pole. There
the vessels separated in a fog: they were unable to rejoin, and while
Cook proceeded to New Zealand in the _Resolution_, Captain Tobias
Furneaux, his second in command, touched at Van Diemen's Land in the
_Adventure_. He made the south-west cape on the 9th of March, 1773,
exactly one year after Marion left the island. After passing the
Mewstone, a boat's crew sent on shore reported favorably of the country,
and that they had seen beautiful cascades pouring from rocks two hundred
feet high. Finding no anchorage, Furneaux passed the black rocks (the
Boreels of Tasman), which he called the Friars, and discovered Adventure
Bay, which is separated from Storm Bay by Cape Frederick Henry. There
they found anchorage in seven fathoms, within half a mile of either
shore, and obtained wood and water in abundance. The numerous islets and
tort