Anthony van Diemens Land, Vertoont hem aldus als gy uyt den westen komt, en zyt op de Zuyder breete van 42 1/2 graad.

The first printed view of Tasmania, from the best account of Abel Tasman’s voyage made on November 24th 1642 and published by Francois Valentyn. In 1642 the Dutch East India Company’s Governor-General Anthony Van Diemen despatched from Batavia an expedition, having for its sole object the discovery of the Great Southern Continent. The results of this historically important voyage for the charting of Australia was that Tasman made landfall on Van Diemen’s Land and established the southern limits of Terra Australis or the Southern Land. &quotIn the year 1642, VOC Governor-General Anthony Van Diemen, and the Council of Netherlands-India, determined to despatch from Batavia a properly equipped expedition, having for its sole object the discovery of the Great Southern Continent. The command of the expedition was entrusted to navigator, Abel Tasman, then 40 years old, and the ship Heemskerk was assigned to him for the service, with the little fly-boat Zeehan as tender. Tasman sailed from Batavia on August 14 reached Mauritius (then a Dutch settlement) on September 5, and sailed thence for the South on October 5. He held a S.E. course until on November 6 he had reached 100 deg. E. long. in lat. 49 deg. S., without finding any signs of the supposed continent. A council of officers was held, and the chief pilot, Francis Jacobsen, advised that the course should be altered, and that the ships should make for lat. 44 deg. S. until 130 deg. E. Long. was reached, when, if no mainland was met with, they should sail into 40 deg. E. lat., and steer on that parallel until they reached 200 deg. E. long. By this course he thought they would be sure to fall in with islands, and having so far solved the problem of the great southern continent, he advised that they should stand north for the Solomon Islands, whence they might shape their course for home. By the middle of November they came to the conclusion that they had passed the extreme limits of the supposed continent, but on the 24th of the month land was seen bearing east by north, distant 10 Dutch miles (40 miles English). Unlike the invariable low sandy shore which former captains had described as characteristic of the Great Southland, the country before them was mountainous, and clothed with dark forest. Tasman says: &quotThis is the furthest land in the South Sea we met with, and as it has not yet been known to any European we called it Anthony Van Diemen’s Land, in honour of the Governor-General, our master, who sent us out to make discoveries. The islands round about, as many as were known to us, we named in honour of the Council of India.&quot They skirted the newly discovered land, and on December 1 came to an anchor in a bay on the east coast. On December 3 they weighed anchor and sailed north until they reached a point about St. Patrick’s Head, from whence they stood away eastward to make new discoveries. After eight days they sighted land, which Tasman called Staten Land, thinking that it might be part of the Southern continent and joined to Staten Land, east of Tierra del Fuego. After a fatal encounter with the Maoris, Tasman sailed along the west coast of New Zealand to Cape Maria Van Diemen, and thence took a north-east course, discovering Amsterdam and other islands, and after skirting the north coast of New Guinea, he returned to Batavia. Due to the considerable inaccuracies of Tasman’s coordinates of longitude which are widely astray by modern standards and latitude (generally believed to be 8-10 miles too southerly by modern comparison), uncertainty has remained over the precise location of this first European sighting of the Tasmanian coast. Initially most autorities suggested Point Hibbs on the west coast of Tasmania, more recently other authorities have suggested the best fit for this location, based on Tasman’s own observations and the evidence of local topography, is more likely the low lying foreshore of Cape Sorell and the Macquarie Heads, with the waters of Macquarie Harbour and the mountainous Tasmanian hinterland beyond. Tasman clearly describes the land that he saw in the evening of November 24th as being very high. He noted that Towards evening we saw three high mountains to the E.S.E. and to the N.E. We also saw two mountains, but not so high as those to the southward.&quot