Home > Willem Jansz

Nothing is known of Jansz's early life*. He entered the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) sometime before 1600, and sailed from the Netherlands for the East Indies in December 1603 as skipper of the Duyfken (or Duijfken, meaning Little Dove), part of a fleet of twelve ships. Once in the Indies, Jansz was sent to search out other outlets for trade, particularly in "the great land of Nova Guinea and other East and Southlands."

On November 18 1605, the Duyfken sailed from Bantam to the coast of western New Guinea. She then crossed eastern end of the Arafura Sea , without seeing Torres Strait, into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and made a landfall on the western shore of Cape York in QueenslandQueensland State flag ( In detail) Coat of Arms ( In detail) Capital Brisbane Governor HE Ms Quentin Bryce Premier Peter Beattie Area — Land — Marine — Total 1 730 648 km² 121 994 km² 1 852 642 km² Population (2002) Density 3 729 000 2. 15/km² Time zone U, near the modern town of WeipaWeipa is a town on the Gulf of Carpentaria coast on Cape York peninsula in Queensland, Australia. It is a mining town that exists because of the enormous bauxite deposits along the coast. Queensland towns.. Jansz charted 320km of the Australian coast, which he thought was a southern extension of New Guinea.

Finding the land swampy and the people inhospitable (ten of his men were killed on various shore expeditions), at Cape Keerveer ("Turnabout"), south of Albatross Bay, Jansz headed home and arrived at Bantam in June 1606Events January 27 The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins ending in their execution on January 31 May 17 Supporters of Vasili Shusky invade the Kremlin and kill pretender Dmitri December 26 Shakespeare's King Lear performed in court Storm bu. He called the land he had discovered "Nieu Zelandt," but this name was not adopted, and was later used by Abel TasmanAbel Janszoon Tasman ( 1603 1659) was a Dutch seafarer and explorer, born in Lutjegast, a village in the province of Groningen, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644, in the service of the VOC ( Dutch East India Company). His was the first European to name New ZealandFor alternative meanings, see New Zealand (disambiguation). New Zealand is a country formed of two major islands and a number of smaller islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. A common Mori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa popularly translated as Land.

Although there have been many suggestions that earlier navigators from ChinaThis article is on the geographic and cultural entity. For other meanings, see China (disambiguation). China ( Traditional Chinese: , Simplified Chinese: , Hanyu Pinyin: Zhongguo, Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo) is a country in continental East Asia with some oute, FranceThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. or PortugalRepublica Portuguesa ( In Detail) National motto: None Official language Portuguese 3 Capital Lisbon President Jorge Sampaio Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes Area Total % water World ranking: 109th 92,391 km²0. 5 % Population Total ( 2004) Density World may have discovered parts of Australia, the Duyfken is the first European vessel known to have done so.

Jansz served in the Netherlands East Indies for several periods ( 1603- 11, 1612- 16, including a period as governor of Fort Henricus on Solor, and 1618- 28, during which time was served as admiral of the Dutch fleet and as governor of Banda 1623- 27). Jansz was awarded a chain of honour in 1619 for his part in capturing four ships of the British East India Company which had aided the Javanese in their defence of the town of Jakarta against the Dutch. In 1628 he retired to the Netherlands with the rank of admiral.

The original journals and charts made during Jansz's 1606 voyage have been lost, but the National Library of Austria in Vienna holds a copy of the map made around 1670. The map, which shows the location of the first landfall in Australia by the Duyfken, is part of the Atlas Blaeu Van der Hem, brought to Vienna in 1730 by Prince Eugene of Savoy.

• The surname Jansz means "son of Jan", or son of "Johannes" (Janszoon in Dutch). 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 have been given the name Willem Jansz. So all we know about him is that his father's name was Johannes, or Jan. Like many countries genealogy and historical research in the Netherlands can be a nightmare for this reason.