Willem Janszoon | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1570 |
| Died | c. 1630 (aged around 60) |
| Other names |
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| Occupations | Navigator andcolonial governor |
| Known for | European discovery of Australia |
Willem Janszoon (Dutch:[ˈʋɪləmˈjɑnsoːn];c. 1570 – c. 1630) was aDutch navigator and colonial governor. He served in theDutch East Indies in the periods 1603–1611 and 1612–1616, including as governor of Fort Henricus on the island ofSolor.[1] Duringhis voyage of 1605–1606, Janszoon and his crew became the first Europeans known to have seen and landed on the coast ofAustralia.
His name is sometimes abbreviated toWillem Jansz,[a][b] as was customary at his time, but "always pronounced in full and generally still is in the Netherlands where this bit of common knowledge is taught at school."[2] However, the abbreviationJansz is not the same as the now more predominant unabbreviated but identicalJansz that is a petrified form ofJanszoon.[c]
Willem Janszoon was born around 1570 as the son of Jan (c. 1540), but nothing more is known of his early life nor of his parents. He is first recorded as having entered into the service of theOude compagnie, one of the predecessors of theDutch East India Company (VOC), in 1598 as a mate aboardHollandia, part of thesecond fleet underJacob Corneliszoon van Neck, dispatched by the Dutch to theDutch East Indies.[3] Around 1600 he became the father of Jan Willemsz before setting sail again on 5 May 1601, for theEast Indies as master ofLam, one of three ships in the fleet ofJoris van Spilbergen.[4]
Janszoon sailed from the Netherlands for the East Indies for the third time on 18 December 1603, as captain ofDuyfken (orDuijfken, meaning'little dove'), one of twelve ships of the great fleet ofSteven van der Hagen.[5] When the other ships leftJava, Janszoon was sent to search for other outlets of trade, particularly in "the great land of New Guinea and other East and Southlands".[This quote needs a citation]
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According to historianJ. E. Heeres,Duyfken departed fromBantam on 18 November 1606 (on theJulian calendar, and 28 November on to theGregorian calendar), based on a contemporary account byJohn Saris:[6]
The eighteenth November 1605 … heere (Bantam) departed a small Pinnasse of the Flemmings, for the discovery of the Land called Nova Guinea which, as it is said, affordeth great store of Gold [...].
The ship's log and diary of Janszoon are lost, but what remains is his chart of the voyage. From this we know the journey included passages from Bantam to theBanda Islands, then to theKai Islands,Aru Islands, and then eventually to the coast of westernNew Guinea, the location of what is today's region ofPalau Yos Sudarso.[7]
After that, Janszoon crossed the eastern end of theArafura Sea into theGulf of Carpentaria, without being aware of the existence ofTorres Strait.Duyfken was actually in Torres Strait in February 1606, a few months before Spanish explorerLuís Vaz de Torres sailed through it. On 26 February 1606, Janszoon made landfall at thePennefather River on the western shore ofCape York inQueensland, near what is now the town ofWeipa. This is the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent. Janszoon proceeded to chart some 320 kilometres (200 mi) of the coastline, which he thought was a southerly extension of New Guinea.
Janszoon decided to return at a place he namedKaap Keerweer (lit. 'Cape Return', the name persists as Cape Keerweer), south of Albatross Bay. On his return north he explored the mouth of the Batavia River, what is today called theDucie River, and although not having been named by Janszoon, it can be identified on his charts.[8]
Information pieced together fromJan Carstenszoon's journal from 1623, which alludes to contemporary knowledge of Janszoon's 1606 voyage,[9] suggests that the crew went ashore several times to seek information about the land, its peoples and opportunities to trade.[10] Cartenszoon noted a conflict between theAboriginal people and crew of the Duyfken:[11]
on the 11th [of May] we sailed close inshore past 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 [...].
In addition, upon the return of an Indian captain from Banda who relayed the story of "the Flemmings Pinasse" second-hand to John Saris, nine crew were killed in total over the voyage,[6]
which went upon discovery of Nova Ginny, was returned to Banda, having found the Iland: but in sending their men on shore to intreate of Trade, there nine of them killed by the Heathens, which are man-eaters; So they were constrained to returne, finding no good to be done there [...].
Carstenszoon's 1623 account further adds that the Aboriginal people seemed acquainted with muskets, presuming they had felt their fatal effects earlier in 1606.[12] It seems clear that Duyfken's crew engaged in conflict with Aboriginal people, making the first European landfall a violent one. However, the specific details and timings of the other eight deaths are not clear, having possibly occurred earlier in New Guinea and Australia. Historian Miriam Estensen reconstructs the events to suggest that the other eight deaths occurred first atYos Sudarso Island in New Guinea, and that by the time of this final conflict at Ducie River approximately half the crew remained, precipitating the decision to return.[7] However, more recent interpretations by the Dutch Australian Cultural Centre that draw on both the Dutch archived material and stories from Aboriginal elders, suggest that prior conflict at Cape Keerweer lead to three crew deaths, substantiating the reason to turn back at this location.[13] The remaining five deaths are thought to have occurred on the return leg as part of a landing atYos Sudarso Island in New Guinea, where a clash over water and firewood occurred with local people.[13] This is the opposite timeline to that described by Estensen, who places eight crew deaths on the island during the first visit.[8] The situation is further obscured by Australian Aboriginal oral traditions, with some accounting for all nine deaths at Cape Keerweer.[14]
Having lost men through open hostility and absent of rewards or even evidence for the riches that motivated the journey, Janszoon returned to Banda by June of 1606.[6]
He called the land he had discoveredNieu Zelant, orNieu Zeelandt,[15] after the Dutch province ofZeeland, but the name was not adopted, and was later used by Dutch cartographers forNew Zealand.
In 1607, AdmiralCornelis Matelieff de Jonge sent Janszoon toAmbon andBanda.[16] In 1611, Janszoon returned to theNetherlands, 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.[17]
Janszoon reported that on 31 July 1618 he had landed on an island at 22° South with a length of 22 miles[d] and 240 miles south-southeast of theSunda Strait.[18] This is generally interpreted as a description of the peninsula fromPoint Cloates (22°43′S113°40′E / 22.717°S 113.667°E /-22.717; 113.667) toNorth West Cape (21°47′S114°09′E / 21.783°S 114.150°E /-21.783; 114.150) on theWestern Australian coast, which Janszoon presumed was an island without fully circumnavigating it.[19]
Around 1617–1618, he was back in the Netherlands and was appointed as a member of theCouncil of the Indies. He served as admiral of the Dutch Defence fleet.[20] Janszoon was awarded a gold chain worth 1,000guilders in 1619, equivalent to€41,756 in 2023, for his part in capturing four ships of theBritish East India Company nearTiku onWest Sumatra, which had aided theJavanese in their defence of the town ofJakarta against the Dutch.[21] 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.[22] Near the end of his life, Janszoon served as governor of Banda (1623–1627).[23][24] He is thought to have died in 1630.
The original journal and log made during Janszoon’s 1606 voyage have been lost. The Duyfken chart,[25] which shows the location of the first landfall in Australia byDuyfken, had a better fate. It was still in existence in Amsterdam whenHessel Gerritszoon made his map of the Pacific in 1622, and placedDuyfken 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 theImperial Library inVienna and remained forgotten for two hundred years. The map is part of theAtlas Blaeu Van der Hem, brought to Vienna in 1730 byPrince Eugene of Savoy. The information from his charts was included in the marble and copper maps of thehemispheres on the floor of The Citizens' Hall of theRoyal Palace inAmsterdam.[26][Link to precise page]
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