Born 1603,
Groningen, Holland
Died 1659,
Batavia, Indonesia
As a navigator for the Dutch East India Company, Abel Janszoon Tasman made his most famous voyage to the South Pacific, where he became the first European to discover Tasmania, New Zealand, Tonga, and the Fiji Islands. Tasman was born in a small village in the Dutch province of Groningen in 1603. He went to the Dutch East Indies for the first time in 1633, then spent the next ten years sailing the ships of the East India Company on some of the most lucrative trade routes in the world. He traveled from Holland to Batavia, the capital of the East Indies, now known as Djakarta, and called at ports in Taiwan and Formosa in China; he also visited the Philippines, Japan, and Cambodia. Tasman accompanied an expedition searching for islands reputed to be rich in silver and gold along the east coast of Japan.
In 1642 Tasman was chosen by the governor of the East Indies, Anthony van Diemen, to lead a great voyage of exploration into the Southern Hemisphere. His principal task was to determine if the great southern continent, about which explorers had long been speculating, actually existed. Tasman hired as his pilot Frans Jacobszoon Visscher, who had written a book speculating about the location of the continent. Another goal of the expedition was to explore the Indian Ocean in the hope of finding a passage to Chile.
The expedition left Batavia on August 14, 1642, with two ships, the Heemskerk and the Zeehaen. Tasman led his fleet in a southwest direction to the island of Mauritius in the southern part of the Indian Ocean, which at that time was a base for the Dutch East India Company. When they left Mauritius, they changed direction and sailed due east rather than northeast, which was the well-known route to the East Indies, hoping that they would find the great southern continent.
The Dutch knew about the northwest coast of Australia because many of their ships had come within sight of land when they were blown off course before turning north to go to Batavia. But they had no idea how far south this land extended. As it turned out, Tasman’s course on his expedition was too far south to touch the southern coast of mainland Australia. He sailed until November 24, when he first sighted land: the southern coast of the island of Tasmania, which is off the southernmost tip of Australia. A party of Dutchmen went ashore; although they saw evidence of human inhabitants they did not encounter anyone. Tasman named the island Van Diemen’s Land after the Dutch governor; two centuries later the island was renamed for Tasman.
From Tasmania the Dutch ships turned northward as they continued to sail east, crossing the Tasman Sea, which was also named for the explorer. Tasman called the next land he sighted New Zealand after one of the Dutch provinces. It was actually the northern tip of South Island of New Zealand. There Tasman met a Maori tribe, but when the Dutch and Maoris engaged in hostilities Tasman was forced to withdraw.
Assisted by Visscher, Tasman continued to search for a passage to the east that would enable them to sail on to the Spanish colony of Chile and open a new market for the Dutch. Although a passage did exist in this area between the North and South Islands, it was nearly impossible to reach because of small islands, heavy currents, and adverse winds. The Dutch were therefore forced to sail north. On January 4, 1643, they reached the northernmost point of New Zealand, which they named Cape Maria van Diemen for the governor’s wife.
As Tasman’s party continued to sail north they reached the Polynesian islands of Tonga, where the inhabitants proved to be friendly. The Dutch were able to go ashore and get fresh water and food. They stayed about a week, meeting with a chief and trading European metal products for food and curiosities made by the islanders. In February 1643 they sailed west and came upon some of the Fiji islands, but they did not stop.
On their return trip Tasman and Visscher chose the same route many later explorers would take: instead of sailing due west, where they would have come upon the eastern shore of Australia, they traveled north and then west along the north coast of New Guinea to the East Indies. They landed at Batavia on June 14, 1643. Tasman never knew it, but he had sailed completely around the continent of Australia. His voyage established that Australia was not attached to any other landmass.
Although Tasman had completed a ten-month voyage during which only one seaman had died, the directors of the East India Company considered the expedition a failure. They had hoped to open a trade route to Chile or at least to find a land that produced valuable products for trade. Persisting in their belief that there was a better route to Chile, they sent Tasman on another voyage. This time the goal was to see whether there was a passage between the coast of New Holland, which is now Australia, and New Guinea that might lead out into the Pacific and on to Chile.
Tasman’s party sailed from Batavia in February 1644, traveling along the northwest coast of Australia to Arnhem Land, a large peninsula. Continuing northward, Tasman discovered the Gulf of Carpentaria. Tasman did not find the passage, tho it did exist: it had been discovered in 1605 by the Spaniard Luis Vaez de Torres, who had never publicized his records. Although Tasman did not fulfill his assigned mission he had shown there was a continuous stretch of land between the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Tropic of Capricorn. He was rewarded with the rank of commander and made a member of the Council of Justice in Batavia.
Following this trip Tasman commanded trading ships sailing between Holland and the East Indies. In 1647 he led a trading fleet to Siam, which is now Thailand; he later fought in a war against Spain in the Philippines. He briefly lost his position because of drunkenness but was reinstated. Tasman became a large landowner in Batavia, where he died in 1659.
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