uous navigation of the coasts led Furneaux into several errors. To
discuss them would tire the patience of nine readers in ten, and afford
no pleasure to the tenth.

The _Adventure_ sailed along the eastern coast to the latitude of 40 deg.
50', where Furneaux observed the land turned towards the westward. He,
however, narrowly missed the discovery of the straits, and turned off
for New Zealand, convinced "that there was no strait between New Holland
and Van Diemen's Land, but a very deep bay." The impression he adopted,
he conveyed to Captain Cook, who had intended to visit Van Diemen's Land
for the solution of this geographical problem, which now he considered
determined.[5]

On his third and final voyage to the Pacific, Captain Cook touched at
Van Diemen's Land in the _Resolution_, then accompanied by Captain
Clerke. He sighted the island bearing north-west half-west, distant
three leagues from Mewstone. A neighbouring rock, unnoticed by Furneaux,
he called the Eddystone, from its resemblance to an English lighthouse
of that name. Detained by calms, he did not reach Adventure Bay until
the 26th, where at 4 P.M. he dropped anchor in twelve fathoms, within a
mile of the shore. The officers were delighted with the country, and
particularly with its gigantic forests. Mr. Anderson, the surgeon, spent
his leisure wandering on the beach of Adventure Bay; angling in a lake,
or ascending the neighbouring hills.[6] Captain Cook left swine on the
shore, which were driven into the bush when the natives were not
present; in the hope they might escape them, and thus add to the
resources of the country. He departed on the 30th for New Zealand. The
account left by Cook is chiefly interesting for its description of the
natives, and will be noticed in the history of that unfortunate people.

On the 3rd July, 1789, the brig _Mercury_, John Henry Cox, master,
entered a deep bay on the south side of Van Diemen's Land, and was about
ten miles from the Mewstone: attempting Adventure Bay, he was carried to
the eastward, and afterwards accidentally discovered Oyster Bay.

Captain Wm. Bligh, subsequently governor of New South Wales, touched at
Van Diemen's Land in 1788, when on his voyage to Tahiti, whence he was
instructed to convey the bread fruit tree to the West India Islands. His
object was frustrated by the mutiny of his crew; and after a passage in
an open boat, attended with extraordinary perils, he reached Great
Britain. The _Provi