262 THE DISCO VERY. OF AUSTRALIA 



to this discovery," and he is to be " seconded by the 

 Pilot Major Frans Visscher." 



Tasman's Of the Hon. Abel Janssen Tasman we have little know- 

 character, ledge, and it is doubtful that we should wish to have more. 

 The complete researches of our modern Dutch scholar, 

 Professor Heeres, while robbing him of the one touch of 

 humanity that used to be attributed to him his supposed 

 love of the daughter of a Governor-General who, it turns 

 out, was daughterless have discovered not one fact, 

 save superior technical skill, that could give him favour- 

 able distinction among the crowd of " able skippers and 

 skilful seamen," of whom there was " no want " in Batavia. 

 His services, remarkable as they now appear, were appre- 

 ciated by his employers in a singularly critical and grudging 

 spirit. On the one occasion in which his personal action 

 came into prominence it was greatly to his discredit, 

 and seemed to reveal a nature coarse-grained, and even 

 brutal. The society of Batavia was not a society likely 

 to be squeamish in its moral judgment, but it thought 

 that Tasman in his later years was unworthy to serve it 

 as Church elder. In short, we are forbidden to imagine 

 Tasman as a man of heroic nature, of high ideals, or of 

 personal charm. We must be content to take him as 

 Van Diemen and his Council took him ; an able and 

 businesslike skipper, whom they could wisely trust to 

 command the ships that were to make the Pacific a Dutch 

 Ocean. 



His early Our modern scholar has proved that Tasman was born 

 in 1603 in the little village of Luytjegast in the province of 

 Groningen. Of his early years we know nothing, save 

 the fact that he learned to write, and " even showed no 

 inconsiderable talent in committing his ideas and experi- 

 ences to paper ; a gift uncommon among servants of 

 the Company." 1 A document of December 1631, which 

 records his intention to marry a second time, describes 

 him as a " common sailor," and as living in one of the 

 poorest quarters in Amsterdam. In 1633 he came to 

 Batavia, as servant of the Company. In 1634 he was 



1 Heeres' Tasman, p. 7. 



