11 



Indies, from which return was so uncertain, may explain why 

 the wife should leave her property to relations on the spol. 



Meantime Abel and his brothers-in-law appeared before the 

 Amsterdam magistrates with the object of selling the family 

 house in the Palm-street for 500 florins. For some reason the 

 contract was cancelled, and the family retained the house until 

 1650, when Powels Barentsz, in his own name, and as attorney 

 for his brother-in-law Tasman, who was then in the Indies, 

 conveyed the property to Andries Barents. 



After a stay of some nine months in . Amsterdam, Abel 

 Jansz once more set his face eastwards. He entered into a 

 new ten years' engagement with the Company, and in con- 

 sideration of this lie was allowed to take his wife with him — ■ 

 the Council of Seventeen having just passed a new regulation 

 whereby the chief officers were permitted to take their wives 

 to the East Indies, provided they were lawfully wedded, were 

 of good lives, and could show good credentials. Tasman was 

 put in command of the fly-ship* Engel (Arujel), fitted out by the 

 Amsterdam Chamber. "The Engel. sailed from the Texel,"l5th 

 April, 1638, and arrived at Batavia on 11th October following. 

 The skipper's pay was 60 guilders (.£5) per month. On 

 arrival at Batavia he was continued in his post for three years 

 at an increased pay of 80 guilders (.£6 13s. 4rf.) per month. 



II. — Voyages in Japan Seas, &c, 1639-1642. 



It is in the year following his return to Batavia, some six 

 rears after his first voyage thither, that wc find Abe! Jansz 

 first chosen to take a prominent part in a discovery expedition. 



The enterprise of the early Dutch governors in their efforts 

 to open up new trade for their Company was ceaseless. Jan 

 Pieterszoon Coen, Governor-General between 1618 and 1629, 

 was the most illustrious, and the one who did most to consolidate 

 the Dutch power. He it was who built the fort at Batavia, 

 and fixed the centre -of government there. He it was who in 

 Java baffled the English, and overmastered them in the 

 Moluccas. During his rule Dutch ships first made the coast 

 of Australia. After Coen, the most famous governor — he 

 who showed the greatest energy in his persistent search for 

 new lands and new markets— was Antony van Diemen, the 

 Governor-General who was in power when Tasman returned 

 to the Indies, and with whom his fame will be for ever asso- 

 ciated. 



Early in the career of the Dutch Company in the Eastern 

 Archipelago the Directors had cast longing "eyes towards the 



Fly-ships {flnit) were long- quick-sailing' ships, of light draught, vary- 

 ing irom 200 to 400 tons burden. Fly-ships were first built at Hoorn in 

 4 594, 



