brought matters to so serious a pass, that the
proud father determined to put the young
adventurer quietly and courteously out of
sight: the doing so he took to be a better and
more fatherly course than the institution of
a great family quarrel. That his Maria
should become Mrs. Tasman, he knew very
well was a thing not for a moment to be
thought of. Whoever won his daughter must
have wealth and a patent of nobility. She
was no fit mate for a poor sailor. Tasman,
however, could be easily dismissed from
dangling after her.

The Batavian traders had at that time a
vague notion that there was a vast continent
—an unknown Austral land somewhere near
the South Pole; and Van Diemen determined
to send Tasman out to see about it. If he
never came back it would not matter; but, at
any rate, he would be certainly a long time
gone. Van Diemen therefore fitted out an
expedition, and gave to young Tasman the
command of it.

Off the young fellow set, in the year 1642,
and, like an enamoured swain as he was, the
first new ground he discovered—a considerable
stretch of land, now forming a very well
known English colony—he named after his
dear love, Van Diemen's Land, and put Miss
Van Diemen's Christian name beside her
patronymic, by giving the name of Maria to
a small adjoining island close to the south-
eastern extremity of the new land. That
land—Van Diemen's Land—we have of late
begun very generally to call after its
discoverer, Tasmania.

Continuing his journey southward, the
young sailor anchored his ships on the
eighteenth of December, in a sheltered bay,
which he called Moodenare's (Murderer's)
Bay, because the natives there attacked his
ships, and killed three of his men. Travelling
on, he reached, after some days, the islands
which he called after the three kings, because
he saw them on the feast of the Epiphany;
and then, coming upon New Zealand from the
north, he called it in a patriotic way, after the
States of Holland, Staten Land; but the
extreme northern point of it, a fine bold
headland jutting out into the sea, strong as his
love, he entitled again Cape Maria. For he
had gone out resolved not indeed to "carve
her name on trunks of trees," but to do his
mistress the same sort of honour in a way that
would be nobler, manlier, and more enduring.

After a long and prosperous voyage, graced
by one or two more discoveries, Tasman
came back to Batavia. He had more than
earned his wife; for he had won for himself
sudden and high renown, court favour, rank,
and fortune. Governor Van Diemen got
a famous son-in-law, and there was no cross
to the rest of the career of the most
comfortable married couple, Abel and Maria.
Tasman did not make another journey to New
Zealand; it remained unvisited until 1769,
when it was re-discovered by Captain Cook,
who very quickly recognised it as a portion
of the land that had been first seen by the
love-lorn sailor.

  A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

                 CHAPTER XLIV.

KING JAMES THE SECOND was a man so
very disagreeable, that even the best of
historians has favoured his brother Charles, as
becoming, by comparison, quite a pleasant
character. The one object of his short reign
was to re-establish the Catholic religion in
England; and this he doggedly pursued with
such a stupid obstinacy that his career very
soon came to a close.

The first thing he did, was, to assure his
council that he would make it his endeavour
to preserve the Government, both in Church
and State, as it was by law established; and
that he would always take care to defend and
support the Church. Great public acclamations
were raised over this fair speech, and a
great deal was said, from the pulpits and
elsewhere, about the word of a King which
was never broken, by credulous people who
little supposed that he had formed a secret
council for Catholic affairs, of which a
mischievous Jesuit, called FATHER PETRE, was
one of the chief members. With tears of
joy in his eyes, he received as the beginning
of his pension from the King of France five
hundred thousand livres; yet, with a
mixture of meanness and arrogance that
belonged to his contemptible character, he was
always jealous of making some show of
being independent of the King of France,
while he pocketed his money. As—notwithstanding
his publishing two papers in favour
of Popery, (and not likely to do it much
service, I should think) written by the King,
his brother, and found in his strong box;
and his open display of himself attending
mass—the Parliament was very obsequious,
and granted him a large sum of money, he
began his reign with a belief that he could do
what he pleased, and with a determination to
do it.

Before we proceed to its principal events,
let us dispose of Titus Oates. He was tried
for perjury a fortnight after the coronation,
and besides being very heavily fined, was
sentenced to stand twice in the pillory, to be
whipped from Aldgate to Newgate one day,
and from Newgate to Tyburn two days
afterwards, and to stand in the pillory five times
a year as long as he lived. This fearful
sentence was actually inflicted on the rascal.
Being unable to stand after his first
flogging, he was dragged on a sledge from
Newgate to Tyburn, and flogged as he was
drawn along. He was so strong a villain
that he did not die under the torture, but
lived to be afterwards pardoned and
rewarded, though not to be ever believed in
any more. Dangerfield, the only other one