THE 
TASMANIAN JOURNAL 
OF 
NATURAL SCIENCE. 
JULY, 1845. 
Art. XII. On the First Discovery of Tasmania , in the months 
of November and December , 1642. By the Rev. J. P. 
Gell. 
The rise of the Dutch East India Company in the early part 
of the seventeenth century is one of the most remarkable chap¬ 
ters of colonial history, but owing to the policy of concealment 
preserved by the government of the day, little is known of the 
discoveries and adventures of the servants of the Company from 
the writers of their own times. From 1811 to 1816 Batavia, 
the ancient centre of the Dutch East India possessions, was in 
the hands of the English, and the archives of the Company were 
found to contain many valuable documents connected with 
the Australasian Islands. Here was treasured the journal of 
Captain Abel Jansen Tasman, which proves that the Island of 
Tasmania had been visited and formally taken into possession by 
the Dutch, one hundred and sixty years before its occupation 
hy the English. With a southerly wind and a clear sky, Tasman 
vol. ii. no. x. 2 a 
