No part of all the Australasian regions has been the subtct of greater doubt or controversy than the Arsaci es, or Solomon Islands. Even their exist ence was long denied after the original discovery, whence their history afterwards became an interest ing topic of investigation. During the course of a voyage by Alvaro de Mendana, from Lima, in South America, for the purpose of discoveries South Sea, in the year 1567, he fell in with a great shoal in Australasia. This he called Baxos de la Cande laria, or Candlemas Shoal, which name it yet retains : it extended fifteen leagues, and the middle lay in 6° 15' south latitude. ,Mendana next fell in with a large island, and several smaller ones, where, finding good materials, he built a brigantine, which he sent out on further discoveries. Other islands were dis covered and examined ; and he named the first where.
on lie had landed Isla Isabel. In consequence of a design entertained by the Spanish government in South America, of establishing a settlement in Aus tralasia, Mendana sailed on another voyage with four vessels in 1595. His discoveries among the islands had been considerable, owing to his residence there, and the services of the brigantine. In the course of again endeavouring to find them, he discovered an island to the eastward, which he called Santa Cruz, now known by the name of Egniont's Island. View ing it as a suitable place for a colony, he landed and built a town, after slight rencounters with the na tives. Mendana found means, however, to conciliate their friendship, and they supplied the colony with provisions ; but an unlucky misunderstanding arose, when the chief was killed, and many misfortunes befell the Spaniards. Mendana soon afterwards died, and was interred in the church of the town which he had founded. The government devolved on his wife, who, deeming it expedient to abandon the settlement, sailed in quest of the Solomon Islands. After making an unsuccessful search for two of the principal islands, the people on board became impa tient, and, the vessels then altering their course, bore away for Manilla • and the governess thence sailed for New Spain. The result of Mendana's second voy age produced much embarrassment, for it wasjustly thought very extraordinary, that a number of islands, whose position had been specified with tolerable ac curacy, could not be found again.
New Caledonia was not known at theperiod of which we are now treating, as it belongs to the discoveries of the eighteenth century ; but the New Hebrides were known to Quivos in 1606. One of the islands was then called Manicolo, or Mallicolo, by the natives of the vicinity, as it is at the present time ; and it is evi dent that he not only landed on the largest, but visit ed others in the vicinity.
New Zealand was discovered by Tasman, the naviga tor whom we have already named. On the 5th of De cember 1612, while searching for Solomon's Islands, he was obliged to alter his course, and on the 13th came in sight of a very high and mountainous coun try, which he believed the Terra Australis. He called it Staaten Land, and anchored in a bay on the north east, where he had an interview with the natives.
Supposing that a friendly intercourse could be car ried on with them; he prepared to land ; but a treacherous attack was made on him, wherein he lost several men, and thence called the place of his an chorage Murderer's Bay. He traversed some of the coast, which was of a pleasing and fertile appearance, and next stood to the northward, discovering some small islands in his way. This portion of Austral asia is now called New Zealand.
Although many islands, rocks, and shoals, were noted by the old navigators, we see, in this cursory retrospect, how very limited the knowledge of the Australasian regions was previous to the eighteenth century. There is a possibility that New Holland was discovered before the year 1600, but it is not yet supported by unquestionable evidence. In the subsequent century, various vessels had visited small portions of its coasts ; and Van Diemen's Land, which had been observed to the south, was judged part of the same immense tract or continent. New Britain and New Ireland were almost totally un known ; the New Hebrides had been visited by one navigator ; and New Caledonia was undiscovered. The position of New Zealand was hardly fixed, and only the general appearances bf the country indica ted. If there be any exception to these general re marks, it applies to the lands of the Arsacides ; for few, if any, late navigators have left observations on them equally t3ccurate with those of him by whom they were discovered. But a vast field of discove ry opened in Australasia at the beginning of the eighteenth century ; nor should this appear so re markable, on considering the disposition and objects of the older navigators. Almost the whole com merce in the more genial climates of the new world was absorbed by the Spaniards, Dutch, and Portu guese. The purpose of the first and last, added to the acquisition of gain, and the desire of conquest, was the propagation of the Roman Catholic religion ; that of the second was chiefly restricted to some mercantile establishment ; and, if opportunities oc curred, their scruples of making themselves masters of the territory were easily overcome. Unfortunate ly their first intercourse with newly discovered na tions tended little to conciliation ; they were guilty of acts and aggressions the most effectual to alienate regard. The savages, as they called them, were sub jected to treatment more inhuman than would have been inflicted on brutes ; they were despoiled of their scanty property, or forcibly made slaves. The gra dual extension of commerce in the beginning of the eighteenth century, and its partition among the other European kingdoms, enlarged their views. The French and English learnt that it was one great source of wealth and prosperity, and having beheld what rival powers had done, many adventurers were attracted towards the Southern Ocean, in hopes of Spanish treasure. After their return, the advantage of settling in warmer and more fertile regions was delibe rately canvassed, and then theapediency of exploring the wide extent of the globe hitherto undiscovered.