TASMAN, ABEL JANSZOON (? 1603-59) was born at Luytegast, in the province of Groningen, in the Dutch Netherlands. In 1633 he shipped to the East Indies before the mast, and in the following year was skipper of a yacht on the general service of the Dutch East India Company. He returned to the Netherlands in 1636, but in 1638 sailed again for the East. In 1639, with Matthew Quast, he was sent by the Governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, Antony van Diemen, to search for reputed islands of gold and silver east of Japan. He visited the Philippines and Bonin island, sailed at large in the north Pacific and returned to Batavia.

In 1642 he entered upon his first expedition in search of the "great south land: Terra Australis incognita." This was planned by Frans Jacobzoon Visscher, the ablest East Indian pilot of the time and a man of great vision, and strongly backed by van Diemen, who wished also to complete the discovery of New Holland (Australia). Visscher sailed on the expedition as Pilot-major. Leaving Batavia on 14 Aug 1642 with two vessels, the Heemskerck and Zeehaen, Tasman touched at Mauritius and then, sailing south and east for seven weeks, sighted the coast of what he called Anthonij van Diemens landt (now Tasmania). After sailing round part of the coast he took possession at Frederick Henry's bay and on 5 Dec set a course in an easterly direction, expecting to sail to the longitude of the Solomon islands in his circumnavigation of Australia. On 13 Dec he discovered "high mountainous country" to which he gave the name of "Staten landt" (after the States of Holland) in the belief that it was part of the same continent as Staten land (of South America), which had been discovered by Schouten and Le Maire. It was in reality the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Steering northwards, Tasman anchored at midnight of 17 Dec off a sandspit (Farewell Spit) beyond which there was a large open bay. On the 18th the ships stood into the bay and anchored in 15 fathoms, the boats having gone ahead in search of a watering place. The smoke of fires was seen in different directions, and at sunset the boats returned, followed by two others filled with natives. A good watch was set during the night. On the following morning a boat with 13 natives approached but paddled off without boarding the ships. Tasman then held a council of the officers of both ships, which decided, as the savages seemed friendly and the anchorage was good, to go as near inshore as possible. During this council seven more canoes filled with natives came off, and the boat of the Zeehaen was accordingly sent, with a quartermaster and six men, to warn the people in that vessel to be on their guard. No sooner had the boat drawn clear of the Zeehaen, on its return journey, than a large canoe, paddling furiously, rammed it and attacked its occupants. The quartermaster and two seamen swam for the Heemskerck and were picked up, but three seamen were killed and a fourth mortally wounded. One of the bodies was carried off by the Maori. Believing that there could now be no friendly intercourse with the natives and no hope of obtaining water or provisions, Tasman took his departure, followed by a fleet of hostile canoes, at which the Dutch fired rather ineffectually, but well enough to send them back to shore. Tasman called the bay Moordenaers (or Murderers), afterwards changed to Massacre, and later still to Golden Bay. For some days the ships tacked about at the entrance to Cook Strait, anchoring several times. It was decided that there was no way out to the eastward (i.e., through Cook Strait); accordingly, after riding out a severe gale behind D'Urville Island, Tasman set a new course and sailed up the west coast of the North Island.

On 4 Jan 1643 the vessels were off the islands which Tasman called the Three Kings. They remained two days in the hope of finding a safe watering place, but the heavy surf and the hostile appearance of the natives decided them, after holding a council of officers, to sail east to longitude 220 deg and then north in the hope of sighting the Cocos and Hoorn islands. Various islands in Tonga were discovered, to which Dutch names were given. There they got water and provisions and then proceeded in bad weather through the dangerous shoals of the Fijian group to the north coast of New Guinea, and so back to Batavia (15 Jun 1643). Much of the conduct of this voyage, as well as its plan, was due to the advice of Visscher.

On a second voyage, in 1644, Tasman and Visscher were to gain further information about Staten land, but war with the Portuguese turned their whole attention to the north and northwest coasts of Australia. The Dutch colonial authorities received Tasman's results coldly, but he was promoted commander and made a member of the Council of Justice at Batavia. In 1647 he commanded the trading fleet to Siam, and in 1648 a war fleet against the Spaniards in the Philippines. He retired as a wealthy landowner in Batavia and died on 22 Oct 1659.

Encycl. Brit.; Sherrin and Wallace; R. H. Major, Early Voyages to Australia, 1859; J. E. Heeres, Tasman's Journal . .. facsimiles, 1898; R. P. Meyjes, De Reizen van Abel Janszoon Tasman en Franchois Jacobzoon Visscher; McNab, Hist. Records, ii; G. A. Wood, The Discovery of Australia; J. C. Beaglehole, The Exploration of the Pacific and The Discovery of New Zealand.

Reference: Volume 2, page 188

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