CHAPTER IV.
THE NAVIGATORS "A ship is floating on the harbour now, A wind is hovering o'er the mountain's brow.
There is a path on the sea's azure floor, No keel hath ever ploughed that path before." Nearly at the end of 1642, Tasman, a sea captain in the service of the Dutch East India Company, sighted the western ranges of the Southern Alps.

He was four months out from Java, investigating the extent of New Holland, and in particular its possible continuation southward as a great Antarctic continent.

He had just discovered Tasmania, and was destined, ere returning home, to light upon Fiji and the Friendly Islands.

So true is it that the most striking discoveries are made by men who are searching for what they never find.

In clear weather the coast of Westland is a grand spectacle, and even through the dry, matter-of-fact entries of Tasman's log we can see that it impressed him.