Company never intended it should be published at all. However, _Dirk
Rembrantz_, moved by the excellency and accuracy of the work, published
in _Low Dutch_ an extract of captain Tasman's journal, which has ever
since been considered as a great curiosity; and as such, has been
translated into many languages." *

[* _Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels, originally published by
John Harris, D. D. and F. R. S._ London, 1744. Vol. I. page 325.]

If a judgment may be formed from the translations, Rembrantz must have
omitted great part of the nautical details concerning Van Diemen's Land,
a defect which is remedied in the following account. It is taken from a
journal containing, besides the daily transactions and observations
throughout the whole voyage, a series of thirty-eight manuscript charts,
views, and figures. The expression _by me_, which often occurs in it, and
followed by the signature _Abel Jansz Tasman_, shows that if this were
not his original journal, it is a copy from it: probably one made on
board for the governor and council of Batavia. With this interesting
document, and a translation made in 1776, by Mr. C. G. Woide, chaplain of
His Majesty's Dutch chapel at St. James's, I was favoured by the Right
Hon. SIR JOSEPH BANKS.*

[* I am proud to take this opportunity of publicly expressing my
obligations to the Right Hon. President of the Royal Society; and of thus
adding my voice to the many who, in the pursuit of science, have found in
him a friend and patron. Such he proved in the commencement of my voyage,
and in the whole course of its duration; in the distresses which tyranny
heaped upon those of accident; and after they were overcome. His
extensive and valuable library has been laid open; and has furnished much
that no time or expense, within my reach, could otherwise have procured.]