Willem Janszoon
Willem Jansz (* 1570, † in 1630 also: Willem Janszoon or Willem Janssen ) was a Dutch navigator. He is officially considered the first European explorer of Australia.
Life
Willem Jansz was around 1570, probably born in Amsterdam. About his childhood and youth nothing is handed down until 1598 he sailed as first mate on the sailing ship "Holland" in the service of a Vorkompanie the Dutch East India Company to Southeast Asia. After his return to Europe he was promoted to first mate and started again to the East Indies. After a few more trips, he left in December 1603 Holland as captain of the Duyfken ( pigeon ), one of twelve ships of another East India expedition. His ship was open for three years new trade sources in Southeast Asia. In November 1605 Jansz left Banten towards Banda Islands. From there he went on to an east -southeast course on the Kei and Aru Islands (South-eastern Moluccas ) for De Jong 's Point to New Guinea. From here he turned south, crossed the eastern Arafura Sea, without an advance into the Torres Strait, and drove into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Probably in March of 1606 he went to the west coast of Cape York Peninsula near the mouth of the Pennefather River on land ( 12 ° 13 '0 "S, 141 ° 47' 0" E - 12.2167141.7833 ). Although there is evidence that already came earlier navigators from China, France or Portugal to Australia, Jansz was the first European to enter demonstrably Australian soil.
Jansz, the country was as muddy and inhospitable. On several land expeditions ten men of his crew were killed by Aborigines. Jansz charted well 300 km of the Australian coastline, but she stopped for a southern part of the coast of New Guinea, a misconception which still remained some years in Dutch cards. He named the newly discovered land strip " Nieu Zelandt ", a name that does not prevailed, but later found by Abel Tasman for the naming of New Zealand Use. His course led Jansz to 13 degrees latitude. At Cape Keer - weer ( " Kehrwiederspitze ", 13 ° 0 ' 0 " S, 141 ° 34 ' 48" O 13141.58 ) in the south of Albatross Bay, he turned and began his journey home. He passed the Prince of Wales Island in northern Australia, crossed the Torres Strait and reached again the coast of New Guinea. In May 1606 he returned to the Banda Islands and finally came in June of the year in Banten.
The originals of his diaries and the map that he made during the voyage of 1606, are lost. In the Austrian National Library in Vienna, however, is a copy of the card, which dates from around 1670 and shows the site of the first landing of the Duyfken in Australia. It is part of the Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem, who came by Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1730 to Vienna.
Jansz headed further expeditions until he first returned in 1611 to Holland. Back in December of the same year he sailed back to the Dutch East Indies. 1614 he was appointed Governor of Fort Henricus on the Solor Archipelago ( Lomblen ) until he returned again in 1617 for a short time in Holland. For the hijacking of ships of the British East India Company, the Java supported the resistance against the Dutch in Jakarta, Jansz in 1619 won militarily. After the conclusion of peace with the British came Jansz, now with the rank of admiral, along with the British against the Philippines. From October 1623 on, he was then governor of Banda, until he returned to the Netherlands in 1627. Soon after, he headed again as an admiral, a fleet of eight ships on a diplomatic mission to India, which he filed a report in July 1629 in The Hague. Then the track Janszens loses.