on 



TASMAN, ABEL JANSSEN, 



TASSIE, JAMES. 



012 



about 50 S. lat., and then due east. Having passed 127 E. long., he 

 sailed to the north and east, and on the 24th November discovered, at 

 10 miles distance, a land to which he gave the name Van Diemen. _ He 

 did not remain here long, nor did he meet with any of the natives, 

 but ho continued on his voyage, sailing to the south-east, and doubled 

 what he conceived to be the southern extremity of the Australian 

 continent, or New Holland, but what in fact was the southern extre- 

 mity of the island of Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land. He made an 

 unsuccessful attempt to anchor in a bay, to which he gave the name 

 of the Bay of Tempest Storm Bay on the south-eastern coast of 

 Van Diemen's Land ; and then ran to tbe north, where he found 

 secure anchorage in another bay, to which he gave the name of 

 Frederick Hendrik Bay, 4252' S. lat., 14757' E. long. On the shore 

 he erected a standard, to which he attached the colours of the Dutch 

 East India Company, and on the 5th set sail again. Unfavourable 

 winds prevented his surveying, as he had intended, the north coast, 

 and he therefore bore to the east, proposing to visit the Solomon's 

 Islands, of which some account had been given by previous navigators. 

 But on the 13th, being in about 42 10' S. lat. and 170 E. lone;., he 

 found himself in view of a high mountainous country, which he 

 named Staaten Land land of estates now known as New Zealand. 

 Tasman supposed this land to be part of the continent of Australia. 

 He sailed along the coast toward the north-east, and on the 17th 

 anchored at the entrance of what he concluded to be a great bay. 

 The natives from the shore approached in their canoes, but still 

 remained at a distance, and refused to come on board either of 

 Tasman's vessels, although every amicable demonstration was exhibited 

 by the crews. Gathering confidence however, they afterwards came 

 in large numbers, and a quarrel ensuing between them and the Dutch, 

 three sailors were murdered. The bay in which this happened received 

 the name of Mordenaars' Bay, or Murderers' Bay (40 40' S. lat., 173 

 E. long.). Tasman did not revenge the death of his men, but, availing 

 himself of a favourable wind, set sail. Being followed however by 

 two and twenty canoes with natives armed, he fired among them, 

 killed one or two natives, and drove the rest on shore. He did 

 not make any progress owing to the variableness of the weather, 

 and was obliged to anchor again in a bay to the east of Massacre 

 or Murderers' Bay which yet preserves his name (about 41 S. 

 lat., 173 30' E. long.). When enabled to resume the voyage, he 

 continued his course along the coast, bearing northwards, until, 

 on the 4th January 1643, he found himself in a situation iu which 

 the violence of the current bearing to the west, and the swelling 

 of the waves, which bore to the north-west, led him to con- 

 clude that the sea in that part afforded a free passage. To the west 

 he perceived a group of small islands which he named the Three 

 Kings (in about 34 3' S. lat., 172 5' E. long.). Those islands were 

 inhabited, but the violence of the waves prevented all intercourse with 

 the natives. Tasman now resolved to sail to the east, and afterwards 

 to the north as far as 17 S. lat., and then to the west towards the 

 isles of Cocos (15 50' S. lat., 174 10' W.long.), and of Hoorn (14 S. 

 lat., 178 23' W. long.), with a view of obtaining some fresh provisions 

 at one of these islands. On the 6th January he saw an island to the 

 south at three miles distance, but no name is given to it. On the 8th, 

 being, as he represents, in 32 S. lat., and 174 E. long., the force of 

 the waves which rolled from the south-east suggested to him that he 

 ought not to look for land in that direction ; he therefore changed his 

 course to the north, and on the 19th discovered an island which he 

 called Pyllstaart (22 22' S. lat., 176 W. long.). On the following 

 day he saw two other islands, and on the 21st approached the more 

 northern, which ho named Amsterdam, the native name being Tonga 

 Taboo (21 30' S. lat., 175 20' W. long.) ; the other Middelburg, the 

 native name being Eoa, the Ea-oo-wee of Cook (21 24' S. lat., 175 

 W. long.). The islanders brought various fruits iu their canoes, and 

 Tasman has described them as uniting courage with mildness. While 

 here he discoved some other isles, before one of which he anchored, 

 naming it Rotterdam, the native name being Ana Moka or Annamooka, 

 20 15' S. lat., 174 31' W. long. Captain Cook, when ho visited these 

 islands about a hundred and fifty years afterwards, found the tradition 

 of Tasman's visit preserved among the natives. 



On the 1st of February Tasman discovered the islands of Prince 

 William, but his provisions being nearly exhausted, he could not stay 

 to visit them. For several days subsequently the sky was so cloudy 

 as to prevent his ascertaining the situation of his vessel, and when fine 

 weather partially returned, he judged it best to sail towards 5 S. lat., 

 and then to bear towards New Guinea, apprehending the return of 

 unfavourable weather, in which he might be cast upon an unknown 

 coast. By the 22nd of March he was in 5 2' S. lat., and having the 

 advantage of clear weather and the east trade-winds, he soon came iu 

 sight of a cluster of islands which had been visited by two navigators, 

 Schouten and Le Maire, and by them named Ontong Java. On the 

 29th he sailed past the Green Islands (4 53' S. lat., 154 50' E. long.), 

 and on the 30th the Isle of St. John (3 50'S. lat., 153 50' E. long.). 

 This island, he says, appeared to be well cultivated, to abound in 

 flesh, fowl, fish, and fruit, and to have a numerous population. 

 Schouten having before sustained some injury from the natives, 

 Tasman did not attempt to land. On the 1st of April he was in sight 

 of what he supposed to be New Guinea, but in fact of New Britain, 

 and shortly after he doubled the cape to which Spanish navigators had 



before given the name of Cabo Santa Maria Cape St. George of 

 Dampier (5 S. lat., 152 15' E. long.). The crew were suddenly 

 awoke on the night of the 12th by what resembled the shock of an 

 earthquake ; the situation of the vessel at the time, as Tasman states, 

 being 3 45' S. lat. They sounded, supposing that the ship had struck, 

 but could find no bottom. Several shocks, each less violent, succeeded. 

 On the 20th they were near to Brandande Yland, or ' Burning Island,' 

 which had been mentioned before by Schouteu. On the 27th they 

 were in sight of another island, which he calls Jama, a little to the 

 east of Moa (8 21' S. lat., 127 45' E. long.), where they obtained 

 cocoa-nuts and other fruits. Tasman has described the inhabitants as 

 absolutely black, and speaking a copious language, in which the fre- 

 quent repetition of the letter ' r ' is noticed. -He anchored on the 

 following day at the Isle of Moa, where he was detained for eight days 

 by unfavourable weather. The Dutch carried on an interchange of 

 knives for cocoa-nuts and Indian figs with the natives. On the 12th 

 of May he coasted the island to which Schouten had before given his 

 name (50' S. lat, 136 20' E. long.), and which is described as fertile 

 and populous : the natives gave proof of their commerce with different 

 Spanish vessels by the production of various articles which they had 

 received in barter. Having now fulfilled his instructions, Tasman 

 directed his course back to Batavia, where he arrived on the 15th of 

 June. A map of his discoveries was sent to the Stadt House at 

 Amsterdam. 



The success of thia voyage induced Van Diemen to commit to 

 Tasman the command of a second expedition, the objects of which 

 are set forth in the instructions given by the governor-general on the 

 occasion. These instructions are printed in the introduction to 

 Flinders' Voyages. After quitting Point Turc, or False Cape, situated 

 in 8 S. lat., on the south coast of New Guinea, he was to continue 

 eastward along the coast to 9 S. lat., carefully crossing the cove at 

 that place, looking about the high islands or Speults liiver with the 

 yachts for a harbour, despatching the tender De Braak for two or 

 three days into the cove, in order to discover whether within the great 

 inlet there might not be found an entrance to tbe South Se.i. The 

 great inlet or cove where the passage was to be sought is the north- 

 west part of Torres Straits. It is evident that a suspicion was enter- 

 tained in 1644 of such a strait, but that the Dutch were ignorant of 

 its having been passed. The ' high islands ' are those which lie in 

 10 S. lat., on the west side of the straits. Speults Eiver appears to 

 be the opening between the Prince of Wales Island and Cape York, 

 through which Cook afterwards passed, and named Endeavour Strait. 

 (Flinders' ' Voyage,' Introduction.) From thia cove he was to coast 

 along the west coast of New Guinea (Carpentaria) to the farthest dis- 

 coveries in 17 S. lat., following the coast farther, as it might run west- 

 ward or southward. It was feared that hs would meet in those parts 

 with the south-east trade-winds, from which it would be difficult to 

 keep the coast on board, if he stretched to the south-east ; but not- 

 withstanding he was by all means to endeavour to proceed, that it 

 might be ascertained whether the land was divided from the great 

 known South Continent or not. These instructions were signed on the 

 29th of January 1644, by the governor-general, and two vessels, the 

 Zeehaan and the Braak, were placed at Tasman's disposal. But of the 

 results of this second voyage nothing is known with certainty ; nothing 

 was ever published. "It seems to have been the general opinion," says 

 Flinders, "that Tasman sailed round the Gulf of Carpentaria, and 

 then westward along Arnhem and the northern coast of Van Diemen's 

 Land ; and the form of those coasts in Thevenot's charts of 1663, and 

 in those of most succeeding geographers, even up to the end of the 

 18th century, is supposed to have resulted from this voyage. This 

 opinion is strengthened by finding the names of Tasman, and of the 

 governor-general, and of two of the council, who signed his instructions, 

 applied to places at the head of the gulf ; as is also that of Maria, the 

 daughter of the governor, to whom Tasman is said to have been 

 attached. In the notes also of Burgomaster Witsen, concerning the 

 inhabitants of New Guinea and Hollandia Nova, as extracted by 

 Mr. Dalrymple ('Collection of Voyages'), Tasmau is mentioned as 

 among those from whom his information was drawn." Of the private 

 life of Tasman nothing is known, neither when nor where he was born 

 or died. 



An account of Tasmau's first voyage is given in the ' Collection de 

 The've'not,' partie iv. ; in Harris's ' Navigantium atque Itinerantium 

 Bibliotheca,' fol., 1744; at the end of the 'Voyages de Correa,' 

 tome ii., Paris ; in ' Terra Australis Cognita, or Voyages to the Terra 

 Australis during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centu- 

 ries,' by Callander, Edin., 1766. From these sources, and from the 

 'Biographic Universelle,' tome 45, tho substance of this article haa 

 been collected. Tasman is not even named in Chalmers, nor in many 

 other universal biographies in the English language. 



TASSIE, JAMES, was born of humble parentage, in or about 1735, 

 in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and was brought up as a country 

 stone-mason. Going to Glasgow on a fair-day to enjoy himself with 

 hia companions, he visited the collections of paintings exhibited by 

 the brothers Foulis, who were then endeavouring to establish an 

 academy for the fine arts in that city. [FouLis.] Feeling a strong 

 desire to become a painter, Tassie removed to Glasgow, and studied 

 drawing in Foulis's academy, but continued to practise his business. 

 Though poor, he was frugal, industrious, and persevering; and, 



