Tasman discovers New Zealand - Dec 13, 1642 - HISTORY.com Tasman discovers New Zealand Publisher A+E Networks Dutch navigator Abel Tasman becomes the first European explorer to sight the South Pacific island group now known as New Zealand. In his sole attempt to land, several of Tasman’s crew were killed by warriors from a South Island tribe, who interpreted the Europeans’ exchange of trumpet signals as a prelude to battle. A few weeks earlier, Tasman had discovered Tasmania, off the southeast coast of Australia. Tasman had named the island Van Diemen’s Land, but, like the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia, it was later renamed Tasmania in the explorer’s honor. New Zealand, named after the Dutch province of Zeeland, did not attract much additional European attention until the late 18th century, when English explorer Captain James Cook traveled through the area and wrote detailed accounts of the islands. Whalers, missionaries, and traders followed, and in 1840 Britain formally annexed the islands and established New Zealand’s first permanent European settlement at Wellington.

Related Videos European discovery of New Zealand – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand Abel Tasman Portuguese and Spanish navigators sailed the Pacific Ocean in the 1500s, but it was probably not until 1642 that a European sighted New Zealand. In that year the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sailed in search of a vast southern continent, which many Europeans thought might exist in the South Pacific. Dutch merchants hoped this land would offer new opportunities for trade. Tasman discovered New Zealand on 13 December 1642, but after a bloody encounter with Māori in Golden Bay, he left without going ashore. Shortly afterwards, a Dutch map maker gave the name Nieuw Zeeland to the land Tasman had discovered. James Cook The English navigator Captain James Cook sighted New Zealand on 6 October 1769, and landed at Poverty Bay two days later. He drew detailed and accurate maps of the country, and wrote about the Māori people. His first encounter with Māori was not successful – a fight broke out in which some Māori were killed. However, after this Cook and his men had friendly contact with Māori.

The naturalists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, who sailed with Cook, gathered a great deal of information about the country’s plants and animals. Their records formed the foundation for the modern study of New Zealand botany. On two later voyages, Captain Cook used New Zealand as a base to prove that a great southern continent did not exist in the Pacific. After Cook Several other explorers, many of them French, visited New Zealand in the years after Cook’s first visit. The most important of these was Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville. He sailed through the dangerous French Pass in the Marlborough Sounds and investigated the east coast of the North Island. Another French explorer who reached New Zealand was Marc Joseph Marion du Fresne. His ships anchored in the Bay of Islands in mid-1772. But Māori tribal groups in the area were at war, and the presence of the French made matters worse. Marion du Fresne and 24 others were killed. Later discoveries about New Zealand’s geography were made by the sealers, whalers and missionaries who visited during the 1800s.

Abel Janszoon Tasman - New Zealand in History The first European to discover New Zealand Often, for pastime, mariners will ensnare The albatross, that vast sea-bird who sweeps On high companionable pinion where Their vessel glides upon the bitter deeps. "The Albatross" - Charles Baudelaire "Towards noon we saw a large high lying land, bearing south-east of us" Abel Janszoon Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman was born in the village of Lutjegast, in today's province of Groningen in the Netherlands, in 1603. Little is known of Tasman's early life, and no portraits of him exist. In 1632 he married Jannetje Tjaerts. He was already a widower at the time, and was recorded as being an ordinary sailor - "vaerentgesel" - and that he lived in a street in Amsterdam called Teerketelsteeg. In 1633 Tasman signed up with the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC).

The East India Company was managed by a board of seventeen - "de Heeren XVII" - the Lords Seventeen - and was appointed by Chambers in the principal trading towns. Eight Chambers were situated in Amsterdam, and four Chambers were in Zealand, a maritime province of the Netherlands. On signing up with the Company, Tasman left for the East to fulfil a three year contract. In 1638, he left the Netherlands for Batavia, (today's Djakarta, Indonesia) in command of the ship "Engel", this time on a ten year contract. His wife accompanied him. Batavia had grown to be a rich city, and here, from this good vantage point in the East Indies, the East India Company was successful and powerful - not lacking in wealth, men or ships. On 13th August 1642 Tasman received instructions to find the mysterious and supposedly rich Southern Continent, which had been eluding and tempting explorers for centuries. This unknown land, Terra Australis Incognita, was said to stretch across the Pacific.

Tasman's instructions were to take possession of all continents and islands discovered and set foot on in the course of his voyage "on behalf of their High Mightinesses the States-General of the United Provinces". Two ships were prepared for the voyage : the "Zeehaen", a flute, (a long, narrow ship - like a flute - with a rounded stern and three masts) of 100 tons carrying 50 men, and the "Heemskerck", the flagship, a small warship of around 60 tons and carrying 60 men. The celebrated pilot, hydrographer and surveyor, Frans (Franchoys) Jacobszoon Visscher accompanied Tasman. On 13th December 1642, the coast of New Zealand came into view, and Tasman noted in his journal "groot hooch verheven landt" (a large land, uplifted high).

Tasman named this land "Staten Landt", which refers to the "Land of the (Dutch) States-General." The area of New Zealand which Tasman sighted was in the vicinity of the coast between modern Hokitika and Okarito, on the west coast of the South Island. Tasman thought, but was not sure, that he may have discovered the western edge of the land discovered in the South Atlantic Ocean in 1616 by his fellow countrymen, Willem Schouten and Isaac Le Maire. (Le Maire Strait, or Estrecho de la Maire, is situated to the south of Chile, between Terra des Fuego and Estados.) At the time, this was believed to have been part of the northern tip of the Southern Continent. Tasman noted this in his journal : "To this land we have given the name of Staten Landt, in honour of Their High Mightinesses the States-General, since it could be quite possible that this land was connected with State Landt, although this is not certain. This land looks like being a very beautiful land and we trust that this is the mainland coast of the unknown south land".

(Only a matter of months afterwards, it was proven by Hendrik Brouwer that Tasman's Staten Landt was not connected in any way to State Landt) At sunset on the 18th December, the Dutch anchored off the coast of Taitapu Bay (now Golden Bay) . Here they decided to try to locate a good harbour, and then to make an attempt to go ashore. It was necessary to find fresh drinking water. A cockboat and a pinnace (a small, fast sailing Schooner) were sent to survey the area. (click here for a map (25k) showing the position of Golden Bay) The two boats returned with their report, and shortly after, as night fell, lights were seen onshore. Two canoes appeared, and the inhabitants began blowing what appeared to the Dutch as a "Moorish" instrument. The canoe people called out to the Dutch, but communication was impossible as neither the Dutch nor the canoe people could understand each other. After a while, the two canoes paddled away. The following morning, another canoe appeared, and once again the natives called out to the Dutch. Communication remained impossible.

Tasman noted that the men in the canoes "had black hair tied together right on top of their heads, in the way and fashion the Japanese have it at the back of the head, but their hair was longer and thicker. On the tuft, they had a large, thick, white feather. They were naked from shoulder to waist". The Dutch tried to tempt the M&#257ori to come on board, without success. As the group of M&#257ori appeared to be friendly, and after a council on board the Heemskerck with the officers of the Zeehaen, the Dutch decided to sail further in, and anchor as close to the shore as possible. In the meantime seven more native canoes appeared, some approaching to within a stone's throw of the ships. In order to avoid the possibility of too many natives attempting to board the ships, the skipper of the Zeehaen, who had been convening on board the Hemmskerck, sent a cockboat back to the Zeehaen with a message warning his junior officers to be on their guard.

However, on returning to the Hemmskerck after delivering the message, one of the native canoes suddenly paddled swiftly and directly at the Dutch cockboat and rammed it, killing three sailors and mortally wounding a fourth. Three other sailors were able to swim towards the Hemmskerck, to be plucked from the sea and to safety. The natives made off with one dead body, threw another into the sea, and set the cockboat adrift, which was recuperated by the Dutch. The Dutch fired on the swiftly retreating M&#257ori, but the canoes were already near the shore and out of firing range. The Dutch ships immediately weighed anchor and set sail. By this time, twenty-two native canoes were massed on the shoreline, and 11 more, "crowded with people", were swiftly paddling towards the Dutch ships. Tasman waited until the canoes were close, before firing only one or two shots at relatively close range. One M&#257ori, standing in a canoe, was hit. This immediately caused the canoes to turn and return rapidly to the shore.

Because of this incident, Tasman named the bay "Moordenaers Baij" - Murderer's Bay. After this unhappy first encounter, the Dutch ships continued in a northerly direction, passing by and naming the Three Kings Islands, (in honour of the biblical Three Wise Men, as Tasman anchored here on Twelfth Night Eve) at the northern tip of the North Island, where the South Pacific Sea and the Tasman sea meet. Tasman named the northwest tip of the North Island of New Zealand Cape Marie van Diemen, after Antony van Diemen's wife, Governor General of Batavia, before heading away, not ever having had the chance to set foot onshore in New Zealand. He returned to Batavia on 14th June 1643. A further voyage was planned for October 1643, but had to be cancelled owing to a renewed outbreak of hostilities with the Portugese. Tasman died in 1659, apparently leaving 25 guilders to the poor of his village. His property was divided between his wife Jannetje and Claesgen, his daughter by his first marriage.

From the end of the 1600's onwards the Dutch began to lose their supremacy at sea. France and England became the new sea powers. However Dutch charters were still consulted by other European explorers, as the Dutch were reputed to have established the best maritime charters in the world at that time. European explorers - Early explorers | NZHistory, New Zealand history online Abel Tasman stamp Dutch exploration of the Pacific was essentially bound up with the Dutch East India Company's quest for a southern sea route to Chile, and the possibility that there might be treasures in 'unknown' parts of the globe. His voyage thus motivated (and financed) by business interests, in mid December 1642 Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand, anchoring a few days later at what is now called Golden Bay. By the time he left in early January 1643, Tasman's New Zealand was a ragged line on the world map, which might or might not be the coast of the unknown southern land. Another voyage was planned in 1643, but the Dutch never followed up on Tasman's discovery, probably as he had not found any land which would provide the material profit the Dutch East India Company had hoped for.

Serious British interest in the Pacific is generally considered to have begun only in the mid 1760s. Following John Byron and Samuel Wallis's earlier expeditions, in 1768 James Cook set out for Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus. The expedition was then to establish the eastern tip of Tasman's New Zealand and the Australian coastline. While the goals of the voyage were scientific, the British also wished to expand trade and empire, and Cook would be careful to include information on resources and the suitability of land for settlement. James Cook stamp Cook sailed from Plymouth in late August 1768, and sighted New Zealand on 6 October 1769. By the time he left to chart the Australian east coast at the beginning of April 1770, he mapped the entire coastline, confirming that New Zealand was not a vast southern continent. Yet there still remained unexplored ocean to the east of New Zealand, where a great continent could lie. The exploration of these areas was one of the objectives of Cook's second voyage (1772-5), which finally proved there was no such continent. Cook's discoveries also forged New Zealand's later links with Britain.

Several French explorers active in the Pacific at the same time, so the Admiralty instructed Cook to annex lands he might discover. At Mercury Bay on 15 November 1769, and at Queen Charlotte Sound on 30 January 1770, he made proclamations which helped ensure that Britain would dominate New Zealand's subsequent history. The French, also interested in trade and exploration, were the only other Europeans to play a significant part in the mapping of New Zealand's coastline. As Cook rounded the top of the North Island in December 1769, the French explorer Jean François Marie de Surville was as little as 40km to the south-west. In mid December he reached the west coast of New Zealand, spending two weeks in Doubtless Bay. On the heels of de Surville, in 1772 Marc Joseph Marion du Fresne spent more than two months in the Bay of Islands while undertaking extensive repairs. He was killed in mid June, caught in a volatile situation between Ngā Puhi and Ngāti Pou, but many of his initial encounters with Maori were friendly, and the expedition left an extensive record of Maori life.

From the 1770s, New Zealand tended to be used more as a base for explorers seeking more challenging destinations. On his way to survey the north-west coast of America for example, George Vancouver spent three weeks in Dusky Sound in November 1791. In February 1793 the Italian explorer Alessandro Malaspina also called in to Dusky Sound on his way to Australia. A quarter of a century later, the Russian explorer Fabian von Bellingshausen was sent to continue to work of Cook's later voyages in exploring the southern polar regions. He visited Queen Charlotte Sound for a week, using it as a base as Cook had. In 1824 the French explorer Louis Isidore Duperrey had a two week stop over in the Bay of Islands before continuing on his circumnavigation of the world. Duperrey's second-in-command in 1824 was Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville. The expedition that Dumont d'Urville led in 1826 is considered to be the last important voyage in the story of the European discovery of New Zealand.

D'Urville intended to complete Cook's chart of New Zealand; he explored Tasman and Admiralty Bays, and much of the east coast of the North Island before leaving. Further information: Pre-Tasman theories The 'articles' page of the Celtic New Zealand website offers a range of material for those interested in claims about an ancient Celtic presence in New Zealand. The 'radical history' page of Zealand.org summarises alternative theories of discovery. The Tamil Bell - In 1836 the missionary and explorer William Colenso found this bell, which had long been used by Maori as a cooking vessel. Theories abound, but the precise origins of the bell and how it got to New Zealand remain a mystery. Explorers Abel Janszoon Tasman (Dutch, 1602/3?-1659) - first arrival 1642 Essay on Tasman - from the online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.

Abel Tasman 1642 - a site devoted to the 370th anniversary of Tasman's visit to New Zealand James Cook (English, 1728-1779) - first arrival 1769 Captain Cook Society - a useful starting point for further research into Cook's life and work; has a strong bibliographic and links section . The Endeavour replica - detailed information on the original and replica ship. James Cook - covers almost every conceivable aspect of Cook's life and work. Also contains material on the scientific side of Cook's Pacific voyages, and his interactions with indigenous peoples. South Seas - focuses on cross-cultural encounters in the Pacific between 1760 and 1800. Cook Memorial Museum - dedicated to Cook's early years near the English village of Whitby. It offers a tour of one of Cook's early residences, now a memorial museum. John Cawte Beaglehole - a brief biography of the New Zealand historian best known for his work on James Cook's journals. Biography on Cook from the online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.

Jean François Marie de Surville (French, 1717-1770) - first arrival 1769 Biography on Surville from the online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Summary of Surville's voyages to New Zealand. The French Akaroa page from Te Ara: the encyclopedia of New Zealand. New Zealand in History web-page, outlining French colonists in New Zealand, the Akaroa settlement , and the conflicting French and British interests. Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne (French, 1724?-1772) - first arrival 1772 Summary of du Fresne's voyages to the Pacific and New Zealand . Biography of du Fresne from the online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. George Vancouver (English, 1757-1798) - first arrival 1791 Vancouver's Pacific voyages - On his third expedition, Cook had been looking for the Northwest Passage (a sea route through or around North America). In 1791 Vancouver was sent to complete this search.

Alessandro Malaspina (Spanish, 1754-1810) - first arrival 1793 Biographical information and summary of voyages. Fabian Gottlieb Benjamin von Bellingshausen (1778-1852) -first arrival 1820 Biography of von Bellingshausen from the online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Cyrille-Pierre-Théodore Laplace (1793-1875) - first arrival 1830 Laplace's 1831 visit to New Zealand caused a stir when it was rumoured that he had taken New Zealand for France. Te Ara entry on the French explorers of New Zealand. Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842) -first arrival 1824 Jules-Sebastien-Cesar Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842) - lots of good information - Antarctic philately site! d'Urville's visits to New Zealand between 1824 and 1840.

Biography of d'Urville from the online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Others Joseph Banks' journal of a voyage on HMS Endeavour, August 1768 - July 1771 and other information relating to Banks held at the State Library of New South Wales. See also a biography of Banks on the Australian National Botanic Gardens site. Daniel Charles Solander (1733-1782) , 'Botanist and Nature's Argonaut' on the Endeavour, 1768-1771. A biography of Solander from the Australian National Botanic Gardens site. Early explorers 2. – European discovery of New Zealand – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand Golden Bay Searching for mines and treasures In the early 17th century the Dutch, fresh from winning their country’s independence from Spain, seized much of the East Indies from Portugal. They established their main settlement at Batavia (today’s Jakarta), on Java. When Malacca was captured in 1641, the position of the Dutch in the East Indies was secured and their interest in the South Pacific grew.

They wanted to know if there was a southern sea route to Chile which they could use to prey on Spanish ships. They were also eager to profit from the untapped resources of the great southern continent which many firmly believed existed east of Australia and west of Cape Horn. In the early 1640s the possibility that there might be rich mines of precious metals and other treasures in the unknown part of the globe prompted the leading men of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia to mount an expedition of discovery. The blueprint for such a voyage was sketched in a memorandum prepared in January 1642 by Franz Jacobszoon Visscher. By this time, the Dutch had already charted the northern, western, and part of the southern coasts of Australia. But how far this land extended to the east was still unknown. Tasman, Visscher and Gilsemans The man chosen to command the expedition, Abel Janszoon Tasman, was born in Holland. By 1642 he already had years of experience sailing in north-west Pacific and Asian waters in the service of the Dutch East India Company.

Tasman, Visscher and Isaac Gilsemans, who also joined the expedition, had been together in Japan when the Dutch were establishing a trading post there. Working for a company which was more interested in increasing profits than knowledge, Tasman was the servant of ‘a businessman’s empire’. But Visscher, who sailed with Tasman as his pilot-major and chief adviser, was a man of keen scientific curiosity. Gilsemans would draw the first European images of New Zealand. Tasman’s voyage Tasman sailed from Batavia on 14 August 1642 with 110 men on two ships, the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen. He first sailed south-west to Mauritius (a Dutch possession from 1598 to 1710), then south to below 49˚ (about the latitude of the Auckland Islands), before running east along about the 45th parallel (the latitude of Ōamaru). He discovered Tasmania (as it would later be called) on 24 November, naming it Van Diemen’s Land after one of the expedition’s chief instigators, the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, Anthony van Diemen.

From there he sailed further east, becoming the first to cross the sea which now bears his name. New Zealand discovered On 13 December 1642 the Dutch sighted ‘a large land, uplifted high’ – probably the Southern Alps. After sighting land, Tasman’s ships veered south, then turned north to pass Cape Foulwind and Cape Farewell. He sailed around Farewell Spit into what is now called Golden Bay, where he anchored on 18 and 19 December. What Tasman saw Which part of the South Island did Abel Tasman actually see when he first sighted land on 13 December 1642? The diary for that day reads: 'towards noon saw a large land, uplifted high, had it south-east from us about 15 miles'. At the time, the ship was located at about 42°10' latitude, which means it was opposite Punakaiki, just north of Greymouth. However, the 15 miles is misleading; a Dutch mile equals four English miles, making Tasman's actual position 60 miles (100 kilometres) offshore.

From that distance, looking towards the south-east, he would probably have seen the northern part of the Southern Alps, and he may even have seen, far to the south, the peaks of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman, as they were later named. Bloodied water One of Tasman’s small boats, passing between the two ships, was rammed by a Māori canoe. Four of Tasman’s party were killed. It is likely that the Māori, of the Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri tribe, saw these strange newcomers as threatening interlopers, an impression reinforced when the Dutch responded by shooting and hitting one Māori. Tasman named the place where he anchored Moordenaers Baij (Murderers Bay). Despite the tragic encounter, Tasman was impressed by the new country. Just days after his men had been killed he wrote that the place was ‘a very fine land’. 1 Unexplored areas After the incident, Tasman moved his ships to the northern end of D’Urville Island. Although he suspected the existence of the strait that his successor, James Cook, was to discover, bad weather prevented him from investigating it, and he sailed north.

In early January 1643, while off Cape Maria van Diemen in Northland, Tasman supposed there was a passage through to the coast of South America. That such a passage might exist did not rule out the possibility that the land he had discovered was part of a great southern continent. But he did not explore any further. After failing in an attempt to get wood and water at one of the Three Kings Islands, Tasman sailed north to Batavia by way of Tonga, the northern Fiji Islands and New Guinea. December 13, 1642 : Tasman discovers New Zealand Introduction Dutch navigator Abel Tasman becomes the first European explorer to sight the South Pacific island group now known as New Zealand. In his sole attempt to land, several of Tasman’s crew were killed by warriors from a South Island tribe, who interpreted the Europeans’ exchange of trumpet signals as a prelude to battle. A few weeks earlier, Tasman had discovered Tasmania, off the southeast coast of Australia. Tasman had named the island Van Diemen’s Land, but, like the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia, it was later renamed Tasmania in the explorer’s honor.

New Zealand, named after the Dutch province of Zeeland, did not attract much additional European attention until the late 18th century, when English explorer Captain James Cook traveled through the area and wrote detailed accounts of the islands. Whalers, missionaries, and traders followed, and in 1840 Britain formally annexed the islands and established New Zealand’s first permanent European settlement at Wellington. Article Details: December 13, 1642 : Tasman discovers New Zealand Author December 13, 1642 : Tasman discovers New Zealand URL Abel Tasman | NZHistory, New Zealand history online Abel Tasman Biography Abel Tasman is officially recognised as the first European to ‘discover’ New Zealand in 1642. His men were the first Europeans to have a confirmed encounter with Māori. The misunderstanding and fear aroused by two such different worlds coming together soon led to violence. Born at Lutjegast, The Netherlands, Tasman went to sea in the service of the Dutch East India Company, receiving his first command in 1634.

After patrolling the waters of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) searching for smugglers and rebels, in 1642 he was appointed to head an expedition to the ‘still unexplored South- and East-land [Australia and South America]’, which had been partly discovered by Dutch mariners. The company wanted to find out whether any exploitable southern lands existed or whether there was a sea passage across the Pacific to Chile. Tasman was given two small ships for the expedition: his flagship, Heemskerck, and an armed transport ship, Zeehaen. Franz Jacobszoon Visscher was appointed as chief pilot. The expedition departed from the company's base at Batavia (Jakarta) in August 1642. After sailing west to Mauritius they turned south before being forced back by the cold to the 45th parallel. Continuing eastwards they sighted the mountains of a land that Tasman named Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) after the governor general of Batavia. They continued east on 4 December and sighted the west coast of the South Island on the 13th.

They anchored at Wharewharangi Bay, near Wainui Inlet to the north of what is now Abel Tasman National Park, on 18 December. The initial meeting between European and Maori was tense but peaceful. The following day, though, the Dutch had a violent encounter with local Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri. Tasman named the place Moordenaers (Murderers) Bay before sailing east to the Manawatu coast of the North Island. Shortly afterwards they sheltered from a storm east of Stephens and D'Urville islands and celebrated the first Christmas dinner in New Zealand. The Dutch continued up the west coast of the North Island reaching Cape Maria Van Diemen (named after van Diemen's wife) on 4 January 1643. In need of fresh water, they investigated Great Island in the Three Kings group on the 5th but were put off by a heavy surf and rocky shore – not to mention up to 35 inhabitants who shouted ‘with rough loud voice’ and threw stones from the cliff-tops. Sailing a north-east course, the expedition arrived in Tonga on 21 January.

After obtaining ample supplies of food and water they sailed on, sighting but not landing in the northern islands of Fiji. After turning west the expedition reached New Guinea in April before returning to Batavia on 15 June 1643. The expedition was deemed a success although it was felt that Tasman could have made more effort to investigate more fully the lands he had discovered. Company bosses in The Netherlands rejected the idea of another expedition. Tasman and Visscher were instead sent to Australia's northern coastline. While looking for another possible passage to South America they mapped the coast from Torres Strait westward to Port Hedland. In 1648 Tasman attempted to hang two sailors who had disobeyed orders by leaving their quarters. He was drunk and one of the men almost died. Tasman was suspended without salary before being reinstated 11 months later. By 1653 he had retired. He remained in Batavia where he owned a substantial amount of land. He captained a small cargo ship, of which he was a part-owner. Tasman died in October 1659, survived by his second wife, Jannetje, and his daughter, Claesjen.

Adapted from the DNZB biography by K. A. Simpson The arrival of Europeans | New Zealand The arrival of Europeans History › The arrival of Europeans Though a Dutchman was the first European to sight the country, it was the British who colonised New Zealand. Add to Wishlist See wish list Early visitor from the Netherlands The first European to sight New Zealand was Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. He was on an expedition to discover a great Southern continent ‘Great South Land’ that was believed to be rich in minerals. In 1642, while searching for this continent, Tasman sighted a ‘large high-lying land’ off the West Coast of the South Island. Abel Tasman annexed the country for Holland under the name of ‘Staten Landt’ (later changed to ‘New Zealand’ by Dutch mapmakers). Sailing up the country’s West Coast, Tasman’s first contact with Māori was at the top of the South Island in what is now called Golden Bay. Two waka (canoes) full of Māori men sighted Tasman’s boat. Tasman sent out his men in a small boat, but various misunderstandings saw it rammed by one of the waka.

In the resulting skirmish, four of Tasman’s men were killed. Tasman never set foot on New Zealand, and after sailing up the West Coast, went on to some Pacific Islands, and then back to Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). His mission to New Zealand was considered unsuccessful by his employers, the Dutch East India Company, Tasman having found ‘no treasures or matters of great profit’. In this section Abel Janszoon Tasman "Anthony Van Diemens Landt (Tasmania). From Tasman's Abel Janszoon Tasman's Journal . . . (Amsterdam, 1898). [Rare Books Division] Book: Tasman, Abel Janszoon. Abel Janszoon Tasman’s Journal of His Discovery of Van Diemens Land and New Zealand in 1642, with Documents Relating to His Exploration of Australia in 1644. . . . Amsterdam, 1898. Facsimiles of the original manuscript, with an English translation by J. de Hoop Scheffer and C. Stoffel and five oversize maps in rear pocket. First full published account of Tasman’s first expedition.

[Rare Books Division] Discovery of Tasmania [November 24, 1642] In the afternoon, about 4 o’clock, we saw land, bearing east by north of us, at about 10 miles’ distance from us by estimation; the land we sighted was very high: towards evening we also saw, east-south-east of us, three high mountains, and to the north-east two more mountains, but less high than those to the southward; we found here that our compass pointed due north. . . . [English translation section, p. 11] This land being the first land we have met with in the South Sea, and not known to any European nation, we have conferred on it the name of Anthoony van Diemenslandt, in honour of the Hon. Governor-General, our illustrious master, who sent us to make this discovery. . . . [p. 12] [December 3, 1642] When we had come close inshore in a small inlet which bore west-south-west of the ships, the surf ran so high that we could not get near the shore without running the risk of having our pinnace dashed to pieces.

We then ordered the carpenter aforesaid to swim to the shore alone, with the pole and the flag, and kept by the wind with our pinnace; we made him plant the said pole with the flag at top into the earth, about the centre of the bay near four trees easily recognizable and standing in the form of a crescent. . . . [T]he carpenter aforesaid thereupon swam back to the pinnace through the surf. This work having been duly executed, we pulled back to the ships, leaving the above mentioned as a memorial for those who shall come after us, and for the natives of this country, who did not show themselves, though we suspect some of them were at no great distance and closely watching our proceedings. [p. 16] “Moordenaers Bay” (Murderers Bay, New Zealand). From Tasman's Abel Janszoon Tasman's Journal . . . (Amsterdam, 1898). [Rare Books Division] (A) Our ships. (B) The prows w hich came alongside of us.

(C) The cock-boat of the Zeehaen, which came paddling towards our ship, and was overpowered by the natives, who afterwards left it again owing to our firing; when we saw that they had left the cock-boat, our skipper fetched it back with our pinnace. (D) A view of the native prow with the appearance of the people. (E) Our ships putting off to sea. (F) [Refers to the next page drawing] [p. 21] Continuing eastward, Tasman’s ships soon came upon another uncharted land, today’s northwestern part of New Zealand’s South Island, on December 13. In the first European encounter with native New Zealanders (Maori Indians), four of Tasman’s men were killed. He named the place Murderers’ Bay (today’s Golden Bay). Not realizing that a strait (Cook Strait) separated the South and North Islands, they moved northward along the coast and named the new land Staten Landt (Statesland), thinking it was the west coast of the island that fellow countrymen Jacques Le Maire and Willem Corneliszoon Schouten had discovered off the southern tip of South America in 1616.

(For more on this, see Le Maire/Schouten in the Explorers section.) Tasman thought this was the western side of the great Southern Continent. From there, sailing northwestward, the expedition located the Fiji Islands but could not land because of wind conditions and a hazardous reef. On his return to Batavia, Tasman’s arc took him past Ontong Java, New Britain and New Ireland (which he mistook as one island), and the northern coast of New Guinea. He arrived back safely on June 15, 1643, having covered more than five thousand miles in mostly uncharted waters. Not realizing it, he had completed a circumnavigation of New Holland (Australia) and proven that it was not the Southern Continent. Discovery of New Zealand "Staete Landt Dit is Beseijlt ende" (New Zealand). From Tasman's Abel Janszoon Tasman's Journal . . . (Amsterdam, 1898).

[Rare Books Division] [December 13, 1642] Latitude observed 42°10′, Longitude 188°28′; course kept east by north, sailed 36 miles in a south-south-westerly wind with a top-gallant gale. Towards noon we saw a large, high-lying land, bearing south-east of us at about 15 miles’ distance. . . . [p. 17] François Valentijn, 1666-1727. “Staeten Landt bezylt en ontdekt . . . (&) Aldus vertoont zich het Drie Koningen Eyland . . . .” Copperplate map (10 x 16.4 cm.) and view (14.7 x 17.2 cm.) on one sheet. From volume 3 of Valentijn’s Oud en nieuw Oost-Indien (Amsterdam, 1726). [Historic Maps Collection]. First printed view of Tasman’s New Zealand coastline and first printed European portrayal of Maori Indians.

Formerly employed by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as Minister to the East Indies, Valentijn probably had access to the cherished, and jealously guarded, VOC archives. The map shows Tasman’s ships approaching what he would called Murderers Bay, situated near Cook’s Strait. Not able to explore the area closely, Tasman assumed a continuous coastline. In the bottom view, Heemskerck and Zeehaen are shown off the Three Kings Islands, located northwest of the most northwestern point of New Zealand’s North Island, where the South Pacific and Tasman Sea converge. Giant Maoris appear on the hilltops. Arriving there on January 6 (1643), the Twelfth Night of the Epiphany, Tasman named them for the biblical three kings or wise men. Heavy surf and reefs prevented him from landing. As interesting as Tasman’s discoveries were, Van Diemen desired more commercial results and thus sent him back out on another expedition to discover a better, more efficient transit to the Pacific Ocean and gold-rich Chile from Batavia across the north of New Holland.

Though there were some reservations about Tasman-the-explorer, who had failed to fully establish the nature of the lands and peoples he had previously encountered, the VOC gave him command of three ships, Limmen, Zeemeeuw, and Bracq (a smaller, more maneuverable boat for investigating inlets), which embarked on February 29, 1644, from Banda in the Moluccas. (Though Tasman was told to keep a full journal and issue a detailed report on his return, neither has survived.) Reconstructing the voyage, secondary sources (charts and references) show that Tasman, once again accompanied by Frans Jacobszoon Visscher of the noted Dutch mapmaking family, took a clockwise route along the southern coast of New Guinea, missed the Torres Strait, explored the Gulf of Carpentaria, reached northern Australia, and charted westward along its coast all the way to North West Cape, before returning to Batavia in August. He had made the first continuous exploration of the north and northwest coasts of Australia but had not ventured inland. In his brief summary of the voyage, Van Diemen reported that Tasman had found nothing profitable, only naked beach-runners without rice.

Tasman’s results were more than a little disappointing, he said: that the vast land of New Holland offered nothing of value was simply unacceptable. But investigating lands was not everyone’s forte, and, until they had the right men and means, nothing more could be done. The VOC decided that trade in the East Indies would be their gold and silver. Tasman, himself, would acquire great wealth as a trader. His two voyages marked the end of major Dutch exploration of the Pacific for the rest of the seventeenth century. Slowly, but steadily, Tasman’s achievements were appropriately acknowledged on maps. For more than a hundred years, until the period of Englishman James Cook’s first voyage (1768–1771), neither Tasmania nor New Zealand was visited further by European explorers. Bowen, Emanuel, d. 1767. “A Complete Map of the Southern Continent: Survey’d by Capt. Abel Tasman & Depicted by Order of the East India Company in Halland [sic] in the Stadt House at Amsterdam.” Copperplate map, 37 × 48 cm. From John Harris’s Navigantium atque itinerantium bibliotheca . . .

(London, 1744). Purchased with funds provided by the Friends of the Princeton University Library. Reference: Perry and Prescott, Guide to Maps of Australia 1744.01. [Historic Maps Collection] First printed English map of Australia. Keeping the Dutch names, Bowen is quick to point out to the reader (in the top note) that only discovered territory is shown—hence all the blank spaces. Still, he claims that it “is impossible to conceive a Country that promises fairer from its Scituation, than this of Terra Australis; no longer incognita, as this Map demonstrates . . .” (bottom note). Below the Tropic of Capricorn, Tasman’s great discoveries of 1642 are sketched: Van Diemens Land and Nova Zeelandia; above it, his coastal exploration of northern Nova Hollandia, during which he missed finding the Torres Strait. In 1606, Spanish navigator Luis Vaez de Torres (fl.

1606) had stumbled on the strait now bearing his name on his way to Manila in the Philippines, but his report was kept secret by Spanish authorities—an example of the proprietary nature of European discovery during the Age of Exploration.

Question: Which European discovered New Zealand and Australia in 1642?
Answer: Abel Tasman