NEW ZEALAND, a country of Asia, in the South Pacific Ocean, first discovered by Tasman, the Dutch navigator, in the year 1642, who gave it the name of Staten Land, though it has been generally distinguished in our maps and charts by the name of New Zealand, and was supposed to be part of a southern continent: but it is now known, from the late discoveries of Captain Cook, who sailed round it, to consist of two large islands, divided from each other by a strait four or five leagues broad. They are situated between the latitudes of 34 and 48 degrees south, and between the longitudes of 166 and 180 degrees east from Greenwich. One of these islands is for the most part mountainous, rather barren, and but thinly inhabited; but the other is much more fertile, and of a better appearance. In the opinion of Sir Joseph Banks,