Willem Janszoon
- Not to be confused with Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571–1638), a contemporary Dutch cartographer
Willem Janszoon | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1570 |
| Died | 1630 |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Occupation(s) | Navigator and colonial governor |
| Known for | Discovery of Australia |
Willem Janszoon (c. 1570–1630), Dutch navigator and colonial governor, is the first European known to have seen the coast of Australia. His name is sometimes abbreviated to Willem Jansz. (with or without the full stop).[1] He was probably born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Early life
Nothing is known of Willem Janszoon's early life. He is first recorded as entering into the service of the Oude compagnie, one of the predecessors of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), as a mate aboard the Hollandia, part of the second fleet dispatched by the Dutch to the Dutch East Indies in 1598.[2] On May 5, 1601, he again sailed for the East Indies as master of the Lam, one of three ships in the fleet of Joris van Spilbergen.[3]
Janszoon sailed from the Netherlands for the East Indies for the third time on December 18, 1603, as captain of the Duyfken (or Duijfken, meaning “Little Dove”), one of twelve ships of the great fleet of Steven van der Hagen.[4] Once in the Indies, Janszoon was sent to search for other outlets of trade, particularly in “the great land of Nova Guinea and other East and Southlands.”
Exploration
On November 18, 1605, the Duyfken sailed from Bantam to the coast of western New Guinea. Janszoon then crossed the eastern end of the Arafura Sea, without seeing the Torres Strait, into the Gulf of Carpentaria. On February 26, 1606, he made landfall at the Pennefather River on the western shore of Cape York in Queensland, near the modern town of Weipa. This is the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent. Janszoon proceeded to chart some 320 km of the coastline, which he thought was a southerly extension of New Guinea.
Finding the land swampy and the people inhospitable (ten of his men were killed on various shore expeditions), at Cape Keerweer (“Turnabout”), south of Albatross Bay, Willem Janszoon decided to return and arrived at Bantam in June 1606. He called the land he had discovered “Nieu Zelandt” after the Dutch province of Zeeland, but the name was not adopted and was later used by Abel Tasman for New Zealand.
The Duyfken was actually in Torres Strait in March 1606, a few weeks before Torres sailed through it.
Janszoon returned to the Netherlands believing that the south coast of New Guinea was joined to the land along which he sailed, and Dutch maps reproduced this error for many years. Though there have been suggestions that earlier navigators from China, France, or Portugal may have discovered parts of Australia, the Duyfken is the first European vessel definitely known to have done so.
Second voyage to Australia
Janszoon reported that on July 31, 1618, he had landed on an island at 22° South with a length of 22 miles and 240 miles[vague] SSE of the Sunda Strait.[5] This is generally interpreted as a description of the peninsula from Point Cloates (22°43′S 113°40′E / 22.717°S 113.667°E) to North West Cape (21°47′S 114°09′E / 21.783°S 114.150°E) on the Western Australian coast, which Janszoon presumed was an island without fully circumnavigating it.[6]
Political life
Janszoon served in the Netherlands East Indies for several periods (1603–11, 1612–16, including a period as governor of Fort Henricus on Solor,[7] and 1618–28, during which time was served as admiral of the Dutch fleet[8] and as governor of Banda (1623–27).[9] He was awarded a gold chain worth 1,000 guilders in 1619 for his part in capturing four ships of the British East India Company which had aided the Javanese in their defense of the town of Jakarta against the Dutch.[10] He returned to Batavia in June 1627 and soon afterwards, as admiral of a fleet of eight vessels, went on a diplomatic mission to India.[11] On December 4, 1628, he sailed for Holland and on July 16, 1629, reported on the state of the Indies at The Hague.[11] He was probably now about sixty years of age and willing to retire from his strenuous and successful life in the service of his country. Nothing is known of his last days, though he is thought to have died in 1630.
Records
The original journal and log made during Janszoon’s 1606 voyage have been lost. The Duyfken chart, which shows the location of the first landfall in Australia by the Duyfken, had a better fate. It was still in existence in Amsterdam when Hessel Gerritsz made his Map of the Pacific in 1622, and placed the Duyfken geography upon it, thus providing us with the first map to contain any part of Australia. The chart was still in existence about 1670, when a copy was made, which eventually went to the Imperial Library in Vienna and remained forgotten there for two hundred years. The map is part of the Atlas Blaeu Van der Hem, brought to Vienna in 1730 by Prince Eugene of Savoy.
Notes
- ^ The surname Janszoon means “son of Jan,” or son of “Johannes” (Janszoon in Dutch). In the early seventeenth century this was already pronounced as “Janse.” This is similar to Johnson in English. Surnames were often not used and children were simply named for their father's given name. In areas where not many people lived he would simply be given the name Willem Jansz, so all we know about him is that his father’s name was Johannes or Jan. As in many countries, genealogy and historical research in the Netherlands can be difficult for this reason. See Note on 17th Century Dutch names. Project Gutenberg of Australia. 31 July 2005.
- ^ Mutch (1942), p13
- ^ Mutch (1942), p15
- ^ Mutch (1942), p17
- ^ Heeres (1899), p13
- ^ Mutch (1942), p46
- ^ Mutch (1942), p43
- ^ Mutch (1942), p49
- ^ Mutch (1942), p50
- ^ Mutch (1942), p48
- ^ a b Mutch (1942), p51
References
- Heeres, J. E. (1899). Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765. London: Royal Dutch Geographical Society, Project Gutenberg of Australia. p. 114.
- Mutch, T. D. (1942). The First Discovery of Australia. Sydney: Mutch, Project Gutenberg of Australia. p. 55.
- Scott, Ernest (July 16, 1916). A short History of Australia. Melbourne: Project Gutenberg of Australia.
- Serle, Percival (1949). "Janszoon, Willem". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
- "Janssen, Willem (fl. 1603 - 1628)". Australian Dictionary of Biography.