Abel Tasman

Abel Tasman

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Abel Janszoon Tasman was born on an unknown day and month in Lutjegast (A small village in the Netherlands) 1603 and died in 1659. He had married twice and fathered one daughter. He was the captain of the Dutch East India Company in Holland.

 Abel Tasman made two adventures to Australia in 1642-43 and 1644. He mapped Van Diemans Land, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji and the North coast of Australia from east to west.
 
 Anthony Van Dieman (the governor general of the Dutch East Indies) sent Able Tasman to map New Holland (Australia) and were hoping to find gold and riches witin the land. However they were disappointed and found nothing. The only thing positive to say about their expedition was that they discovered that New Holland was not part of a larger continent stretching to the south pole.

On the 24th of November 1642 Abel Tasman discovered Tasmania and named it Van Diemans Land, after the govorner general, Van Dieman.
Abel Tasman arrived at Frederick Henry bay in which was named after the chief magistrate of the Netherlands. Whilst they were there some sailors were sent ashore to gather water and supplies and heard people in the bushes and saw smoke, however they did not see any indigenous people.

In 1644 Abel Tasman was sent to see if New Guinea was joined to the south land. He planned to travel down New Holland's east cost but could not pass through the reefs, so he then sailed west and charted the gulf of carpentaria.

He hoped to cut through the centre of New Holland, but couldn't for obvious reasons and so he sailed eight thousand kilometres of coastline along the northern half of Western Australia and then returned to Batavia. His reports on returning home were negative for wealth from New Holland therefore making other countries uninterested for many years in sailing to New Holland.

Abel Janszoon Tasman's routes

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