Willem Janszoon (; ), sometimes abbreviated to Willem Jansz., was a
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
navigator and colonial governor. Janszoon served in the
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
in the periods 16031611 and 16121616, including as governor of Fort Henricus on the island of
Solor
Solor is a volcanic island located off the eastern tip of Flores island in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, in the Solor Archipelago. The island supports a small population that has been whaling for hundreds of years. They speak the lang ...
. During
his voyage of 16051606, he became the first European known to have seen the coast of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
Early life
Willem Janszoon (Willem Jansz) was born around 1570 as the son of Jan (, but nothing more is known of his early life or of his parents.
Janszoon is first recorded as entering into the service of the ''Oude compagnie'', one of the predecessors of the
Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
(VOC), in 1598 as a mate aboard the , part of the
second fleet under
Jacob Cornelisz. van Neck, dispatched by the Dutch to the
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
.
[Mutch (1942), p13] Around 1600 he became the father of Jan Willemsz before setting sail again on 5 May 1601, for the
East Indies
The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around t ...
as master of the ''Lam'', one of three ships in the fleet of
Joris van Spilbergen
Joris van Spilbergen (1568 in Antwerp – January 31, 1620 in Bergen op Zoom) was a Dutch naval officer.
Joris van Spilbergen was born in Antwerp in 1568.
His first major expedition was in 1596, when he sailed to Africa.
He then left for As ...
.
Janszoon sailed from the Netherlands for the East Indies for the third time on 18 December 1603, as captain of the (or ''Duijfken'', meaning "Little Dove"), one of twelve ships of the great fleet of
Steven van der Hagen
Steven van der Hagen (Amersfoort, 1563 – 1621) was the first admiral of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He made three visits to the East Indies, spending six years in all there. He was appointed to the Raad van Indië. Van der Hage ...
. When the other ships left
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
, Janszoon was sent to search for other outlets of trade, particularly in "the great land of New Guinea and other East and Southlands".
Exploration and discovery
First voyage to Australia
On 18 November 1605, the ''
Duyfken
''Duyfken'' (; Little Dove), also in the form ''Duifje'' or spelled ''Duifken'' or ''Duijfken'', was a small ship built in the Dutch Republic. She was a fast, lightly armed ship probably intended for shallow water, small valuable cargoes, bri ...
'' sailed from
Bantam to the coast of western
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea).
It is a simplified version of ...
. After that, Janszoon crossed the eastern end of the
Arafura Sea
The Arafura Sea (or Arafuru Sea) lies west of the Pacific Ocean, overlying the continental shelf between Australia and Western New Guinea (also called Papua), which is the Indonesian part of the Island of New Guinea.
Geography
The Arafura Sea is ...
into the
Gulf of Carpentaria
The Gulf of Carpentaria (, ) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary is ...
, without being aware of the existence of
Torres Strait
The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mai ...
. The ''Duyfken'' was actually in Torres Strait in February 1606, a few months before Spanish explorer
Luís Vaz de Torres
Luís Vaz de Torres ( Galician and Portuguese), or Luis Váez de Torres in the Spanish spelling (born c. 1565; fl. 1607), was a 16th- and 17th-century maritime explorer of a Spanish expedition noted for the first recorded European navigation of ...
sailed through it. On 26 February 1606, Janzoon made landfall at the
Pennefather River
The Pennefather River is a river located on the western Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, Australia.
Location and features
Formed by the confluence of a series of waterways including the Fish Creek in the Port Musgrave Aggregation ...
on the western shore of
Cape York in
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
, near what is now the town of
Weipa
Weipa () is a coastal mining town in the local government area of Weipa Town in Queensland. It is the largest town on the Cape York Peninsula. It exists because of the enormous bauxite deposits along the coast. The Port of Weipa is mainly invol ...
. This is the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent. Janszoon proceeded to chart some 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), Janszoon decided to return at a place he named Cape Keerweer ("Turnabout"), south of Albatross Bay, and arrived back at Bantam in June 1606. He called the land he had discovered ''Nieu Zelant'', or ''Nieu Zeelandt'', after the Dutch province of
Zeeland
, nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge")
, anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem")
, image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg
, map_alt =
, m ...
, but the name was not adopted, and was later used by Dutch cartographers for
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
In 1607, Admiral
Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge
Cornelis Matelief de Jonge (c. 1569 – October 17, 1632) was a Dutch admiral who was active in establishing Dutch power in Southeast Asia during the beginning of the 17th century. His fleet was officially on a trading mission, but its true inte ...
sent Janzoon to
Ambon
Ambon may refer to:
Places
* Ambon Island, an island in Indonesia
** Ambon, Maluku, a city on Ambon Island, the capital of Maluku province
** Governorate of Ambon, a colony of the Dutch East India Company from 1605 to 1796
* Ambon, Morbihan, a c ...
and
Banda. In 1611, Janzoon returned to the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, believing that the south coast of New Guinea was joined to the land along which he had sailed, and Dutch maps reproduced that error for many years. Though there have been suggestions that earlier navigators from
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
or
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
may have discovered parts of Australia earlier, the ''Duyfken'' is the first European vessel definitely known to have done so.
Second voyage to Australia
Janszoon reported that on 31 July 1618, he had landed on an island at 22° South with a length of 22 miles and 240 miles SSE of the
Sunda Strait. This is generally interpreted as a description of the peninsula from
Point Cloates
Point Cloates (), formerly known as Cloate's Island, is a peninsula approximately 100 kilometres south south-west of North West Cape, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It features Point Cloates Lighthouse and the ruins of a previous li ...
() to
North West Cape
North West Cape is a peninsula in the north-west of Western Australia. Cape Range runs down the spine of the peninsula and Ningaloo Reef runs along the western edge. It is in the Gascoyne region and includes the town of Exmouth.
History
In 16 ...
() on the
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
n coast, which Janszoon presumed was an island, without fully circumnavigating it.
Political life
Around 1617/18 he was back in the Netherlands and was appointed as a member of the
Council of the Indies
The Council of the Indies ( es, Consejo de las Indias), officially the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies ( es, Real y Supremo Consejo de las Indias, link=no, ), was the most important administrative organ of the Spanish Empire for the Amer ...
. He served as admiral of the Dutch Defence fleet. Janszoon was awarded a gold chain worth 1,000
guilder
Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' "gold penny". This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Roman Empir ...
s in 1619 for his part in capturing four ships of the
British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
near
Tiku on
West Sumatra
West Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Barat) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the west coast of the island of Sumatra and includes the Mentawai Islands off that coast. The province has an area of , with a population of 5, ...
, which had aided the
Javanese in their defence of the town of
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
against the Dutch. In 1620 he was one of the negotiators with the English. In a combined fleet they sailed to Manila to prevent Chinese merchants dealing with the Spanish. Janszoon became vice-admiral, and the year later admiral. Near the end of his life, Janszoon served as governor of Banda (16231627). He returned to
Batavia
Batavia may refer to:
Historical places
* Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands
* Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
in June 1627 and soon afterwards, as admiral of a fleet of eight vessels, went on a diplomatic mission to India.
[Mutch (1942), p51] On 4 December 1628, he sailed for Holland and on 16 July 1629, reported on the state of the Indies at The Hague.
He was now probably about sixty years old and ready to retire from his strenuous and successful career in the service of his country. Nothing is known of his last days, but 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 Gerritszoon 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 around 1670, when a copy was made. This eventually went to the
Imperial Library in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and remained forgotten 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
Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy–Carignano, (18 October 1663 – 21 April 1736) better known as Prince Eugene, was a Generalfeldmarschall, field marshal in the army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty during the 17th a ...
. The information from his charts was included in the marble and copper maps of the
hemispheres on the floor of The Citizens’ Hall of the
Royal Palace in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
.
[http://www.historychannel.com.au/tv-shows/showDetails.aspx?show=617]
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Janszoon, Willem
1570s births
1630 deaths
16th-century Dutch people
17th-century explorers
17th-century Dutch explorers
Admirals of the navy of the Dutch Republic
Explorers of Australia
J
Maritime exploration of Australia
Sailors on ships of the Dutch East India Company
17th-century Dutch colonial governors
Dutch East India Company people from Amsterdam
Maritime history of the Dutch East India Company
Early modern Netherlandish cartography