Extract Uittet Journael vanden Scpr Commandr Abel Janssen Tasman, bij hem selffs int ontdecken van't onbekende Zuijdlandt gehouden
1642–43,
compiled 1643–47
Ink on laid paper bound in vellum
Safe 1 / 72
Known as the Huijdecoper journal, this
Dutch manuscript is a copy of part of Abel Janszoon Tasman’s original journal
(1642–43). The original no longer exists.
On his voyage to chart the unknown south
land, Tasman sighted the west coast of Tasmania, north of Macquarie Harbour on
24 November 1642. The next evening he made this observation:
… This land the First Land in the South sea that
we have encountered and not yet known to any European nation, so have we given
this Land the name of Anthony van Dymens Land, in honour of the Hon. Governor General
our high Superior, who has sent us out to make this discovery. The Islands
circumjacent we have named after the Hon Councillors of India, as may be seen
from the little chart made of them.
The Huijdecoper journal
Abel Janszoon Tasman was
instructed to command expeditions to the southern and eastern seas in 1642–1643
and 1644 by Anthony van Diemen, Governor General of the Dutch East Indies.
Tasman kept journals on board ship during both these
voyages. The full journal of the first voyage was lost, but two abridged
versions survived.
The Huijdecoper journal, one of these versions, is an
extract copy. The journal of the second voyage was also lost. No copies are
known to exist. The Huijdecoper journal takes
its name from the Dutch family from whom the journal was purchased in the
1920s.
The Huijdecoper journal is written
in a clerk's hand, with annotations possibly in the hand of Isaac Gilsemans,
the merchant aboard Tasman's ship the Zeehaen. The journal
includes two manuscript charts and a rare printed map by Hessel Gerritsz titled Chart
of the Malay Archipelago and the Dutch Discoveries in Australia, 1816, which is one of only three known copies in existence. Six
coastal drawings of land sighted on 4 and 5 December 1642 are also inserted in
the volume.
The other version of Tasman’s original journal, known as the Sweers journal, is held in the collection of the
Nationaal Archief, The Hague.
Rich discoveries
The
Dutch voyage of discovery led by Abel Janszoon Tasman is credited with being
the first European expedition to encounter Tasmania, New Zealand and Fiji. In
1642 he was appointed by the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, Anthony
van Diemen to lead a voyage of discovery to the southern oceans. The purpose of
the mission was to search for ‘the great southern land’, believed to possess
great riches and resources. The Dutch East India Company also had a commercial
interest in locating new trading partners and identifying faster and safer
trade routes to Europe, particularly a Pacific route across to South America.
On
his 1642–43 journey, Tasman sailed from Batavia (now Jakarta) in Indonesia
along Australia’s south coast, around the southern tip of Tasmania, and on to
New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji before returning to Batavia via the north coast of
New Guinea. On a second voyage, in 1644, he charted much of Australia’s
northwest coast and the southwest coast of New Guinea. Both voyages are
accurately documented on this chart.
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