6 



century it was the Dutch who were the sailors and the 

 merchants of the world and the masters of the sea. Not 

 London, but Amsterdam, was the great emporium for the 

 products of East and West, the centre of the world's trade, 

 and the richest city on the globe. The commerce of Europe 

 and of the world was in the hands of the merchants of the 

 Low Countries, who had a hundred ships afloat for every one 

 owned by Englishmen. 



TASMAN'S LIFE AND VOYAGES. 

 I.— Youth and early Voyages, 1603-1638. 

 It was in the midst of the Eighty Years War, in the year after 

 the foundation of the Company in whose service he was to 

 win his fame, and in the same year that Sir Walter Raleigh 

 presented to King James his memorial on the trade of the 

 Hollanders, that Abel Janszoon Tasman stepped onto this 

 world's stage. He was born in the little inland village of 

 Luytjegast, in the province of Groningen, in the year 1603. 

 Groningen is the most north-easterly province of Holland, 

 and formed part of the ancient Friesland. It is flat, even for 

 proverbially flat Holland. The highest hill, the Doeseberg, 

 rises to a height of only 35 feet above the level of the ocean, 

 and some of the country lies even below the sea level. It is 

 protected from the furious inroads of the North Sea by magni- 

 ficent dykes of timber and stone. Behind these massive 

 ramparts stretch wide and fertile fields and meadows, rich in 

 agricultural and dairy produce. The cultivators, who hold their 

 lands under a species of tenant right, are at present the richest 

 and most prosperous peasant farmers in the whole of Europe. 

 In Roman times the Frisians occupied the country from the 

 Elbe to the Rhine, including the extensive tract now covered 

 by the Zuyder Zee, over which the sea burst so late as the 

 thirteenth century. They were sea rovers as well as cattle 

 herdsmen, and were distinguished for their fierce independence 

 and indomitable love of liberty. They were one of the tribes 

 that took part in the conquest of Britain. At this day the 

 Frisian language, spoken by a handful of people, is the most 

 nearly related of all Low German dialects to the English, and 

 the men are nearest to the English in blood. The Fries- 

 landers are of a different race from the inhabitants of Holland 

 proper. The typical Dutchman is squat and short-legged ; the 

 Frieslander, tall, yellow-haired, blue-eyed, and of powerful 

 build. We may fairly believe that Tasman belonged to this 

 tall, bold, and impetuous race, who supplied no small pro- 

 portion of the hardy fishermen and sailors whose daring made 

 Holland a great sea power. 



