Janszoon voyage of 1606 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Willem Janszoon , Dutch navigator and colonial governor, is probably the first European known to have seen the coast of Australia. His name is sometimes abbreviated to Willem Jansz....

made the first recorded European landing on the Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n continent in 1606, sailing from Bantam

Bantam (city)

Bantam in Banten province near the western end of Java was a strategically important site and formerly a major trading city, with a secure harbor on the Sunda Strait through which all ocean-going traffic passed, at the mouth of Banten River that provided a navigable passage for light craft into...

, Java

Java

Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

in the Duyfken

Duyfken

Duyfken was a small Dutch ship built in the Netherlands. She was a fast, lightly armed ship probably intended for shallow water, small valuable cargoes, bringing messages, sending provisions, or privateering...

. As an employee of the Dutch East India Company

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...

, Janszoon had been instructed to explore the coast of New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

in search of economic opportunities. He had originally arrived in Dutch East Indies

Dutch East Indies

The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....

from the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

in 1598 and become an officer of the VOC on its establishment in 1602. In 1605, he sailed from Bantam to its south coast and continued down what he thought was a southern extension of New Guinea, but was in fact the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...

of northern Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

. He travelled south as far as Cape Keerweer, where he battled with the local aboriginal people and several of his men were killed. As a consequence he was obliged to retrace his route up the coast towards Cape York and then returned to Banda.
Janszoon failed to discover Torres Strait

Torres Strait

The Torres Strait is a body of water which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost continental extremity of the Australian state of Queensland...

, which separates Australia and New Guinea. Unknown to the Dutch, the Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

or Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

explorer Luis Váez de Torres, working for the Spanish Crown, sailed through the strait four months later, although Torres did not report seeing the coast of a major land mass to his south and is therefore presumed not to have seen Australia. As a result of these oversights, Dutch maps did not include the strait until after James Cook

James Cook

Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...

's 1770 passage

First voyage of James Cook

The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771...

through the Torres Strait, while early Spanish maps showed the coast of New Guinea correctly, but omitted Australia.

Voyage

Janszoon travelled to the Dutch East Indies

Dutch East Indies

in 1598 for the Oude compagnie and became an officer of the Dutch East India Company

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...

( (VOC) in Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

) when it was established in 1602. After two trips back to the Netherlands, he returned to the East Indies for the third time in 1603 as captain of the Duyfken

Duyfken

. In 1605, he was at Banda in the Banda Islands

Banda Islands

The Banda Islands are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about south of Seram Island and about east of Java, and are part of the Indonesian province of Maluku. The main town and administrative centre is Bandanaira, located on the island of the same name. They rise...

, when—according to an account given to Abel Jansen Tasman

Abel Tasman

Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the VOC . His was the first known European expedition to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand and to sight the Fiji islands...

, issued in Batavia in 29 January 1644—he was ordered by VOC President Jan Willemsz Verschoor, to explore the coast of New Guinea. In September 1605, he left for Bantam

Bantam (city)

in west Java

Java

—which the VOC had established as its first permanent trading in 1603—so that the Duyfken could be fitted out and supplied for its voyage. On 18 November 1605, the Duyfken sailed from Bantam to the coast of western New Guinea

New Guinea

. Although all records of the voyage have been lost, Janszoon’s departure was reported by Captain John Saris. He recorded that on 18 November 1605"... a small Dutch

Dutch people

The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

pinnace departed here for the discovery of the land called New Guinea, which, it is said, may yield a great amount of wealth".

No original logs or charts of Janszoon's voyage have been located, but it is not known when or how they were lost. Nevertheless a copy was apparently made in about 1670 from Janszoon’s map of his expedition, which was sold to the Austrian National Library

Austrian National Library

The Austrian National Library , is the largest library in Austria, with 7.4 million items in its collections. It is located in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna; since 2005 some of the collections are located in the baroque Palais Mollard-Clary...

in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

in 1737. It can be deduced from this map that Janszoon then sailed to Ambon

Ambon Island

Ambon Island is part of the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. The island has an area of , and is mountainous, well watered, and fertile. Ambon Island consists of 2 territories: The main city and seaport is Ambon , which is also the capital of Maluku province and Maluku Tengah Ambon Island is part of the...

(the headquarters of the VOC), Banda, the Kai Islands

Kai Islands

The Kai Islands of Indonesia are in the south-eastern part of the Maluku Islands, in Maluku Province.-Geography:...

, the Aru Islands

Aru Islands

The Aru Islands are a group of about ninety-five low-lying islands in the Maluku province of eastern Indonesia. They also form a regency of Indonesia.-Geography:...

and Deyong Point on the coast of Papua

Papua (Indonesian province)

Papua comprises most of the western half of the island of New Guinea and nearby islands. Its capital is Jayapura. It's the largest and easternmost province of Indonesia. The province originally covered the entire western half of New Guinea...

. After exploring the coast of Papua the Duyfken rounded Vals Point and crossed the eastern end of the Arafura Sea

Arafura Sea

The Arafura Sea lies west of the Pacific Ocean overlying the continental shelf between Australia and New Guinea.-Geography:The Arafura Sea is bordered by Torres Strait and through that the Coral Sea to the east, the Gulf of Carpentaria to the south, the Timor Sea to the west and the Banda and Ceram...

—without seeing Torres Strait

Torres Strait

—into the Gulf of Carpentaria

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 Arafura Sea...

, and on 26 February 1606 it made landfall at a river on the western shore of Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula

in Queensland

Queensland

, near the modern town of Weipa

Weipa, Queensland

Weipa is the largest town on the Gulf of Carpentaria coast of the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Weipa had a population of 2,830; the largest community on Cape York Peninsula. It exists because of the enormous bauxite deposits along the coast...

. Janszoon named the river the Batavia after the ancient Germanic tribe

Batavians

The Batavi were an ancient Germanic tribe, originally part of the Chatti, reported by Tacitus to have lived around the Rhine delta, in the area that is currently the Netherlands, "an uninhabited district on the extremity of the coast of Gaul, and also of a neighbouring island, surrounded by the...

that the ancient Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

found in the area that is currently the Netherlands

Netherlands

, but it is now known as the Pennefather River

Pennefather River

The Pennefather River in Queensland, Australia, is located on western Cape York Peninsula at . The river is about 11 km long and up to about 2km wide.- External links :**...

.12°13′S 141°44′E This is the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent. He proceeded over Albatross Bay to Archer Bay,13°16′S 141°39′E the confluence of the Archer and the Watson Rivers, which he named Dubbelde Rev (Dutch for double river) and then on to Dugally River, which he named the Visch (Dutch for fish).

Turnabout

According to the VOC’s Instructions to Tasman in 1644, Janszoon discovered 220 miles (354.1 km) of coast from 5

5th parallel south

The 5th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 5 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, Australasia, the Pacific Ocean and South America....

to 13¾ degrees southern latitude, but found "... that vast regions were for the greater part uncultivated, and certain parts inhabited by savage, cruel black barbarians who slew some of our sailors, so that no information was obtained touching the exact situation of the country and regarding the commodities obtainable and in demand there.... " He found the land to be swampy and infertile, forcing them eventually to give up and return to Bantam due to their lack of "... provisions and other necessaries ...." Nethertheless, it appears that the killing of some of his men on various shore expeditions was the main reason for their return—he turned back where his party had its greatest conflict with aboriginals, which he subsequently called Cape Keerweer,13°55′S 141°28′E Dutch for "Cape Turnabout".

Cape Keerweer is on the lands of the Wik-Mungkan

Wik-Mungkan language

Wik-Mungknh, also often called Wik-Mungkan, is a Paman language spoken on the northern part of Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia, by the Wik-Mungknh people. It is closely related to the other Wik-Mungknh language, Wik-Iiyanh, and more distantly to the Wik languages...

Aboriginal people, who today live in various outstation

Outstation

Historically, an outstation was a subsidiary homestead or other dwelling, on Australian sheep or cattle stations which were large enough to have more than a day's travel between different parts of the property....

s and in the nearby Aurukun Mission station

Aurukun, Queensland

Aurukun is an Indigenous community, situated approximately south of Weipa in far North Queensland, Australia. The town faces west to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and during the wet season, roads are impassable....

. The book Mapoon, written by members of the Wik-Mungkan people and edited by Janine Roberts, contains an account of this landing passed down in Aboriginal oral history

Oral history

Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...

.

According to this account, the Dutch appropriated some of the women and forced the men to hunt for them. Eventually a fight broke out leading the locals to kill some of the Dutch and burn some of their boats. The Dutch are said to have shot dead many of the Keerweer people before escaping.

Return to Banda

After the conflict, Janszoon retraced his route north to the north side of Vliege Bay, which Matthew Flinders

Matthew Flinders

Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...

called Duyfken Point in 1802. He then passed his original landfall at Pennefather River and continued to the river now called Wenlock River. This river was formerly called the Batavia River, due to an error made in the chart made by the Carstenszoon

Jan Carstenszoon

Jan Carstenszoon or more commonly Jan Carstensz ) was a 17th century Dutch explorer.In 1623, Carstenszoon was commissioned by the Dutch East India Company to lead an expedition to the southern coast of New Guinea and beyond, to follow up the reports of land sighted further south in the 1606 voyages...

1623 expedition. According to Carstenszoon, the Batavia River was a large river, which in 1606 "... the men of the yacht Duijfken went up with the boat, on which occasion one of them was killed by the arrows of the natives".

Janszoon then proceeded past Skardon,11°46′S 142°00′E Vrilya Point,11°14′S 142°07′E Crab Island,10°58′S 142°06′E Wallis Island,10°51′S 142°01′E Red Wallis Island10°52′S 142°02′E to t Hooge Eylandt ("the high island", now called Muralug Island or Prince of Wales Island,10°41′S 142°11′E on which some of them landed. The expedition then passed Badu Island10°07′S 142°09′E to the Vuyle Bancken, the continuous coral reefs between Mabuiag Island

Mabuiag Island

Mabuiag is an island in the Bellevue Islands, 100 km north of Thursday Island Queensland, Australia in the Napoleon Passage and Arnolds Passage of Torres Strait...

09°57′S 142°10′E and New Guinea.

Janszoon then sailed back to Banda via the south coast of New Guinea. On 15 June 1606 Captain Saris reported the arrival of:

A reference to the outcome of the expedition was made as a result of Willem Schouten

Willem Schouten

Willem Cornelisz Schouten was a Dutch navigator for the Dutch East India Company. He was the first to sail the Cape Horn route to the Pacific Ocean.- Biography :Willem Cornelisz Schouten was born in c...

’s 1615 voyage on behalf of the Australische Compagnie from the Netherlands to the Spice Islands via Cape Horn

Cape Horn

Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...

. The VOC sought an order from the Dutch Government prohibiting the Australische Compagnie from operating between Ceylon and 100 miles (160.9 km) east of the Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

. In 1618 it presented a memorandum in pursuit of this order that included the following:

Torres Strait

Willem Janszoon returned to the Netherlands apparently in the belief that the south coast of New Guinea was joined to the land along which he sailed, although his own chart did not verify his claim to have continuously followed the coastline where the Torres Strait is found.

In 1622, prior to Jan Carstenszoon’s 1623 exploration of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Hessel Gerritszoon published a map, which included the coastline of part of the west coast of Cape York. Although this map shows this coast as an extension of New Guinea, it includes a note that refers to Spanish maps that differed from the Dutch understanding of the area. It noted that while the Spanish maps were inconsistent with each other, they would, if confirmed, imply that New Guinea did not extend more than 10 degrees south

10th parallel south

The 10th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 10 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Australasia, the Pacific Ocean and South America....

, "then the land from 9

9th parallel south

The 9th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 9 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Australasia, the Pacific Ocean and South America....

to 14 degrees

14th parallel south

The 14th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 14 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Australasia, the Pacific Ocean and South America....

must be separate and different from the other New Guinea". The Spanish maps would have reflected Luis Váez de Torres's voyage through the strait named after him, which he completed in early October 1606, although the Dutch knew nothing of it.

Both Carstenszoon in 1623 and Tasman in 1644 were directed to attempt to find a passage in the area of Torres Strait, but failed. Following these explorations, the Dutch continued to wonder whether there was a passage: However, Dutch maps still showed Cape York and New Guinea as being contiguous, until James Cook

James Cook

Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...

clearly demonstrated the existence of the Strait on his first voyage

First voyage of James Cook

The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771...

in 1770.

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