Abel Janszoon Tasman E-Book

James Backhouse Walker

• Herausgeber: BertaBooks
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer, explorer and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the VOC. He was the first known European explorer to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and New Zealand, and to sight the Fiji islands. His navigator François Visscher, and his merchant Isaack Gilsemans, mapped substantial portions of Australia, New Zealand and some Pacific Islands.No life of the first circumnavigator of Australia has hitherto appeared in English. Nothing has been accessible to the English reader but an abstract of one voyage and a few lines in biographical dictionaries. This is scarcely surprising, when we consider how careless Tasman's own countrymen have been of his fame. Fifty years ago all that had been printed in his own country consisted of short abstracts of a few voyages, and these were hidden away in bulky collections. Even the date and place of his birth were matter for conjecture .and dispute. Things are somewhat better now.

Leseprobe

ABEL JANSZOON TASMAN

His Life and Voyages

JAMES BACKHOUSE WALKER

Copyright © 2017James Backhouse Walker

Amazing Classics

All rights reserved.

ABEL JANSZOON TASMAN

Read before the Royal Society of Tasmania on the 25th November 1895

by

James Backhouse Walker, F.R.G.S.

Tasmania:

William grahame, Jun., Government Printer, Hobart.

1896

PREFACE.

No life of the first circumnavigator of Australia has hitherto appeared in English. Nothing has been accessible to the English reader but an abstract of one voyage and a few lines in biographical dictionaries. This is scarcely surprising, when we consider how careless Tasman's own countrymen have been of his fame. Fifty years ago all that had been printed in his own country consisted of short abstracts of a few voyages, and these were hidden away in bulky collections. Even the date and place of his birth were matter for conjecture .and dispute. Things are somewhat better now. Thirty-five years ago the complete journal of his famous voyage of 1642 was published in Holland, and we are now promised a sumptuous fac simile edition of the original manuscript, with notes by two eminent scholars, and with an English translation.

Moreover, patient searchers in the Dutch Colonial Archives have for years past been laboriously gleaning scattered particulars respecting him, and the results of their investigations have been printed from time to time in the transactions of Dutch learned societies, and in other places. It has thus become possible to piece together a fairly connected account of the great navigator's life.

But after all available information has been made use of, the result is disappointing. The man himself remains for the most part an indistinct figure. Personal details are few. The facts are mostly dry and meagre, gathered from formal official despatches and dusty registers. The material is wanting for a biography which would give a clear and sharply defined picture of the man as he lived.

It is possible, however, to attain what is of even more interest. We can arrive at a just estimate of his work as a discoverer, and of his place among the great navigators of the

world. The discovery of Tasmania and New Zealand was no chance adventure. It was the result of a steady policy. It was the outcome of the adventurous energy which in the 16th and 17th centuries created the Dutch Republic; gave to Holland her Colonial Empire; and--not content with her possession of the Eastern Archipelago--sent out her sailors to search for a New world in the unknown regions of the mysterious South. Tasman and Visscher are but types of the men who won for their country her once proud position of mistress of the seas.

In the following pages an attempt has been made not merely to give all that is known of Tasman's life and work, but to present that work in proper historical perspective.

I desire to acknowledge generally my obligation to the authors whose names appear in the list appended to this paper, particularly to Messrs. Dozy, Heeres, Van Boekeren, and Leupe. Also to Sir Edward Braddon for his courtesy in having, when Agent-General for Tasmania, obtained for me valuable information from Holland. Especially to Mr. J. E. Heeres, of the Dutch State Archives at The Hague, for his generous kindness in placing at my disposal manuscript notes of his researches in the old Colonial Records--notes containing interesting details which have never before appeared in print. And, lastly, to the Treasurer, Sir Philip Fysh, for authorising the printing of this paper at the Government Press of the Colony. It is fitting that the first English biography of Tasman should be offered to Australian readers by the country which he discovered and which bears his name.

JAMES B. WALKER.

Hobart, January, 1896.

MAPS.

[MAPPE-MONDE, CIRCA 1630

(From the Atlas of Janssonius; Amsterdam, circa 1630.) Shows the Terra Australis Nondum Cognita, as supposed before Tasman's discoveries. The figures in the border of the map represent: (1) The Seven Planets. (2) The Seven Wonders of the World. (3) The Four Elements. (4) The Four Seasons.

[MAP OF TASMAN'S VOYAGES, 1642 AND 1644

(Reduced from the fac simile in Mr. Jacob Swart's edition of the Journal of 1642; Amsterdam, 1860.) The original map--which is elaborately coloured--is probably the work of the Pilot-Major Frans Visscher. [See Bibliographical Notes; Manuscript Maps, No. 1.

MAP OF ANTHONY VAN DIEMENSLANDT

(From Messrs. F. Muller and Co.'s reproduction of the map in Tasman's Journal.) The original map--which is carefully coloured--is contained in the Manuscript Journal preserved in the State Archives at The Hague, and described in the Bibliographical Notes as R.A. 2.

INTRODUCTION.

The modern era of maritime discovery may be said to begin with the work of Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed "The Navigator" (1394-1460). Prince Henry devoted his life to the furtherance of geographical discovery. He was inspired by the hope of finding the sea-route to the East, and winning for his country the rich trade of India and Cathay. During forty years he sent out from Lagos fleet after fleet bound for the exploration of the coasts of Africa. Further and further south into the unknown and dreaded Atlantic his caravels pushed their way, until at his death, in 1460, his captains had reached the mouth of the Gambia beyond Cape Verde, and had colonised the Azores. The discoveries made under this Prince's inspiring influence were the stepping-stone to the great voyages which marked the close of the century. Following the initiative of Henry, the bold genius of Columbus conceived the splendid idea of finding the East by sailing west; and, in 1492, when he fell upon America, he believed that he had reached the further shores of India. Five years later Henry's countryman, Vasco da Gama, in a voyage almost as important as that of Columbus, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and opened the gates of the sea-way to Calicut and the East. Pope Alexander the Sixth by his famous Bull apportioned the world between the discoverers--allotting the western half to Spain, and the eastern to Portugal. From that time the gold and silver of the West were poured into the lap of Spain while Portugal gathered in as her sole property the rich profits of the coveted trade of the East. For well nigh a century the two nations enjoyed a practical monopoly of the regions which the daring of their sailors had won. Spain, in particular, through the wealth she acquired from her American possessions, became the dominant power in the world, and the mistress of the sea. Her fall from that high eminence was due to her arrogant greed for universal dominion, and her attempt to crush a free nation of traders.

In the 15th and 16th centuries the Netherlands--the Low Countries of common English parlance--were the most prosperous nation in Europe. While other nations exhausted themselves in war, they devoted themselves to the arts of peace. In agriculture they were far in advance of all other countries of the time, The Flemish weavers were the first in the world, and their looms supplied England and all Europe with the best linen and woollen fabrics. In an age when salted provisions were almost the sole winter diet of all classes, the fisheries of the North Sea were nearly as important as the manufactures of Flanders. These fisheries were well nigh monopolised by the Hollanders, and were a rich mine of wealth to the northern towns, while they trained a hardy and daring race of sailors. In addition to their manufactures and their fisheries, the Dutch had become the traders and carriers of the European world. It was Dutch ships and Dutch sailors that distributed throughout Europe the treasures brought by Spanish and Portuguese fleets from the East and West Indies.

The Netherlands were an appanage of the Spanish crown. But, the rich manufacturing and trading cities of Flanders and Holland enjoyed considerable liberties and powers of local self-government, granted to them from time to time by their over-lords in exchange for heavy annual payments. It was the attempt of the Spanish king Philip the Second to abolish the charters of their towns, to stamp out their liberties, and to suppress the Reformed Religion by means of the Inquisition, that led to the rise of the Dutch Republic, and the long and cruel war with the revolted Provinces, which lasted eighty years (1566-1648), and finally resulted in the humiliation of Spain.

The Dutch revolt forms one of the most striking epochs in history. It was the first blow struck in modern times for human freedom and liberty of conscience against the despotism of kings and the intolerance of priests. The power of the strongest empire in the world was put forth to crush the revolted citizens. Treachery, torture, and massacre were freely and ruthlessly employed. The butcheries of the Duke of Alva still stand out pre-eminent in the bloody annals of tyranny and persecution. The story, as we read it in the graphic pages of Motley, bristles with deeds of ferocious cruelty and blood.

The struggle would have been hopeless, but that their extremity taught the Dutch to find their strength upon the sea. Powerless before their enemies on land, the patriots took to the ocean. In small vessels their hardy sailors cut off the Spanish supplies, made daring descents on sea-coast towns; and in process of time set themselves to work to strike Spain in her most vulnerable part, her commerce with the New World, from which she drew her wealth. The Beggars of the Sea, as the Dutch rovers styled themselves, became the terror of the richly laden galleons and haughty fleets of Spain. Not only did they cut off the supplies of gold and silver from the New World on which the Spanish King depended, but in the spoils which they wrested from the enemy and in the trade which they were continually extending they found the means for their country to carry on the conflict. England, almost equally in danger from Spanish designs, made common cause against the enemy. Even when the countries were not at open war, Drake and the English seamen acknowledged no peace with Spain beyond the Line, but captured her ships `and sacked her settlements on the Spanish Main, returning home laden with treasure. Foiled in his disastrous attempt to conquer England with his Great Armada, Philip was equally unsuccessful in his efforts to destroy the Dutch commerce. In vain did he prohibit the Hollanders from trading with his dominions. In vain did he from time to time lay embargoes on their ships, and send thousands of their sailors to languish in the dungeons of the Inquisition. The bold Hollanders only replied by vigorous reprisals. They mocked at his prohibitions, and continued to carry on an ever increasing and enormously profitable illicit trade. Dutch and English privateers triumphantly swept the seas and harried the Spaniards at their pleasure. Subjugated Flanders had become an obedient Spanish province; her rich merchants had fled, and her people were starving in a desolated country. But the unconquered United Provinces of the north were actually profiting by the war, and every day growing richer and more powerful.

The long struggle on the seas, and its successful issue, roused both in England and Holland an insatiable spirit of adventure. In England this spirit found its outlet in privateering or piratical exploits, such as those of Hawkins and Drake; or in romantic expeditions, such as that of Raleigh to Guiana; and led, in its ultimate development, to the establishment of our Colonial and Indian Empire.