Baye Des Meurtriers. De Moordenaars Baay.

Murderer’s Bay acquired its fateful title from the events that unfolded there in December 1642, as Tasman’s expedition reached the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island, having traversed the Tasman Sea from Van Diemen’s Land and Europeans made their first fateful encounter with the native peoples of New Zealand. Tasman’s two ships, the Heemskerck and Zeehaen sighted land at present-day Cape Foulwind (Clipigen Hoek), then skirted northwards along the west coast to the northern tip of the South Island, rounding present-day Cape Farewell and anchoring in present-day Golden Bay. Here they endured a murderous encounter with the local Maori natives of the Ngati Tumatakokiri people, who crowded round the two anchored Dutch vessels in small canoes. Jansz, the captain of the Zeehaen was aboard the Heemskerck, and sent his boat with the Zeehaen’s quartermaster and six sailors to warn his crewmen to be on their guard. Between the two vessels it was attacked by one of the native canoes and four of its sailors clubbed to death by the Maori natives.