Amsterdam, the centre of the commerce of the world, eager 

 to seek his fortune in the rich eastern lands which his country- 

 men had won. He had married young— either in his native 

 province or in Amsterdam— and his wife, Claesjie Heyndncks, 

 had died, leaving him an only daughter. When we get the 

 first definite information respecting him he was a widower, 

 living in the Terketelsteeg (Tarkettle Lane), one of the 

 poorest quarters of Amsterdam. Here on the 27th Becem- 

 ber 1631, he married his second wife, Jannetjie ljaers. 

 He' was not encumbered with property,— at least his name 

 does not appear in the contemporary register ot assess- 

 ment for the half per cent. tax. His wife was not greatly 

 his superior in social position, and could not sign the 

 marriage register. She belonged to a working-class family — 

 her father being a powder-maker, and her brother a sailor, 

 like her husband. The family were not, however, altogether 

 without means. They were owners of one, if not two, small 

 houses in Amsterdam. The young couple began life m a 

 more respectable locality than Tarkettle Lane, setting up house 

 in the Palm-street. It cannot have been long after his 

 marriage that Abel Jansz, then 28 or 29 years old, made what 

 was probably his first voyage to the East Indies, in the service 

 of the Dutch East India Company. That shortly after this 

 time he was in the service of the Company in the Eastern Seas 

 we know from independent evidence. Mr. Heeres has found 

 in the old Colonial archives two declarations signed by Tasman 

 in 1634, which inform us of his rapid rise, during the space 

 of two years at most, from the position of a simple sailor to 

 that of master of a ship. In May he was mate of the ship 

 Weesp (Wasp), trading from Batavia in Java, to Amboyna 

 in the Moluccas. In July the Governor of Amboyna appointed 

 him master— "skipper" was the term in those days— of the 



iachtt Mocha. , . 



Tasman was therefore employed in the spice trade, the 

 chief centre of which was the Moluccas or Spice Islands, 

 and especially Amboyna and the Banda Isles, the native 

 home of the nutmeg and the clove. In these days it is 

 difficult for us to understand the value which our forefathers, 

 even down to the end of the 17th century, set upon eastern 

 spices— p epper, cinnamon^ gi nger, nutmeg, and especia lly 



*Th P following is a translation of the entry in the Register of the 

 Amsterdam Church, dated 27 December, 1631 :-Abel Janss. of Lntfaqut, 

 Amsteiuau , Terketelsteeeh, widower oi Claesjie 



H^SfedSf an/Cnetie ifaers, of Amsterdam, aged 21 years ; her sister 

 P , ri e T aers being present, living in the Palm-street. [In the margin ] 

 Direkie Jacobs, the mother, consents to the said marriage, as Jan Jacobs 



aU t S " S Jacht," a small ship of from 100 to 200 tons burden. 



