Tasman, Abel Janszoon (ä`bəl yän`sōn tä`smän), 1603?–1659, Dutch navigator. In the service of the Dutch East India Company from c.1632 to 1653, he made several trading and exploring voyages in the Pacific and Indian oceans. On a voyage (1639–42) in the N Pacific he visited the Philippines and Taiwan, followed the coast of Japan, and discovered several small islands. In 1642 he sailed from Batavia in command of the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen. On that voyage he visited Tasmania (which he named Van Diemen's Land) and New Zealand, touched the Tonga islands, and returned (1643) to Batavia, having circumnavigated Australia and thus demonstrated that no connection exists between it and a polar continent. In 1644 he was dispatched to discover the relationship between New Guinea, Tasmania, and the known part of Australia; he established the continuity of land from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the northwest coast of Australia at the Tropic of Capricorn.

Bibliography

See biography by A. Sharp (1968).

Tasman, Abel Janszoon

(born 1603?, Lutjegast, Neth.—died probably before Oct. 22, 1659, certainly before Feb. 5, 1661) Dutch explorer. In the service of the Dutch East India Company, he made exploratory and trading voyages to East and Southeast Asia (1634–39). In 1642 he was sent by Anthony van Diemen to find the hypothetical southern continent of the Pacific and a possible route to Chile. Sailing from Batavia (modern Jakarta), he reached 49° S at 94° E, then turned north and discovered land he named Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), then sailed along the coast of New Zealand, believing it to be the southern continent. He also discovered Tonga and the Fiji Islands. On his next voyage (1644) he sailed into the Gulf of Carpentaria and along the northern and western coasts of Australia.