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Abel Tasman and the South Land

Early in the sixteenth century many people thought that somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere there had to be a large continent, Terra Incognita Australis. When Captain Willem Jansz discovered the coast of a yet unknown continent in 1606, people obviously wondered if this could be the legendary unknown South Land. In 1642 the Dutch East India Company sent Commander Abel Tasman on an exploratory expedition with two ships to investigate this.

The expedition’s objective was to chart the known South Land’s coasts, search for the unknown South Land and uncover a safe seaway to South America. Tasman was allocated two ships for the journey, the yacht Heemskerck and flyboat Zeehaen with a crew of 110. The exploratory expedition commenced on 8 October 1642 at Mauritius. Tasman headed south for three weeks and then turned off to the east. On 24 November they saw high mountains appear. They called the new land ‘Anthoonij van Diemens landt’ in the honour of the governor-general ‘who sent us out to make this discovery’. It is now known as Tasmania. On 2 December a group of soldiers went ashore, but they were unable to make contact with the local population and the ships sailed on.

On 13 December 1642 they saw ‘a high elevated land’: the expedition had encountered New Zealand. A few days later they saw smoke rise in several places ‘where the inhabitants were making fire’. Both ships anchored. There were fires on land everywhere and two canoes with natives sailed toward the ships. They called out to the Dutchmen ‘in harsh shrill voices, but we could not understand a word of it’.

On 19 December another little boat with natives approached. Tasman describes them in his journal: ‘of ordinary height but with harsh voices and strong boned, their skin colour between brown and yellow, with black hair tied right on top of the crown of their head in a manner and style of the Japanese at the back of the head, but their hair was longer and thicker with a big white feather on top’. He also describes their boat: ‘two long narrow canoes alongside each other, with several boards or other seating over them, so above water one can see their paddles through and underneath the boat’.

The canoe returned to the coast. They decided to sail closer to the coast because there was a good anchoring spot and the population seemed friendly. Then about seven canoes with natives approached. The captain of the Zeehaen sent his quartermaster and six others back to the ship in a little boat to warn the crew. But all of the sudden the boat was attacked by the Maoris. Quartermaster Cornelis Joppen was stabbed several times in the neck and fell overboard. The others were attacked with clubs and paddles. Three sailors were killed instantly, a fourth was fatally injured. The quartermaster and two other sailors swam to the Heemskerck and reached the quickly lowered sloop alive. Natives were shot at with rifles and guns from both ships now. Then the ships raised anchor ‘since we could not befriend these people or obtain any water or refreshments here’. Moments later they were attacked by 11 canoes full of Maoris, but they easily beat off this attack. The council of naval officers was convened and they decided to name it ‘this Murderers place’ (Moordenaarsbaai). It is currently called Golden Bay. The newly discovered land was named Statenland in the honour of the States General in the Netherlands and because they assumed it was linked to the Statenland previously discovered at Cape Horn.

The journey was continued north-eastward and the expedition had to contend with bad weather for days. The ships continued along the coast and in early January 1643 reached the northern point of New Zealand which was named Cabo Maria van Diemen. On an island from which they wanted to get water they saw ‘about 30 to 35 people, tall people as far as we could see with sticks or clubs who called out to us with harsh loud voices’. On 8 January 1643, Tasman writes the following in his journal: ‘this waterway from Batavia to Chile is smooth, so nothing stands in the way of sailing this waterway’. Eleven days later, on 19 January, they saw an island they named Pijlstaertseiland because many pintails nested there. It is currently known as Ata, one of the islands in the Tonga Archipelago. The next day they came across two more islands and on 21 January they anchored at the most northern of the two. They named it Amsterdam (now Tongatapu) ‘due to the abundance of refreshments we received there’ and the other island was named Middelburch (now Eua).

In the afternoon a small canoe with three natives approached. Tasman describes them as follows: ‘these men were naked, of brown skin colour and a little taller than normal, two of them had long thick hair on the head, a third one was close-shaven; only a small quaint cloth covered their manhood’. Along the beach they saw many people some of whom carried little white flags which the Dutchmen presumed to be a sign of peace. Another canoe with natives sailed alongside and the first natives came aboard the ship. More followed later on and gifts were exchanged. On 22 and 23 January the Dutchmen went ashore to stock up on provisions and fresh water, so eventually they ‘obtained about 100 pigs, 150 fowls and quite a few coconuts, yams and other fruits for both ships’. They visited the king and honoured him with a white flag ‘as a sign of peace’.

On 24 January they sailed on and discovered the northern islands of the Tonga Archipelago. Through the Fiji Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, the northern side of New Guinea and the Moluccas, the Zeehaen and Heemskerck reached Batavia on 15 June 1643. Tasman's last journal entry was: ‘God be praised and thanked for a safe journey Amen’.

Translation of information on the Dutch National Archives website