[Frederik Hendrix Bay / Marias Eyland]

The first printed map, solely devoted to Tasmania, from the first complete account of Abel Tasman’s two voyages to Australia in 1642-43.

The map shows Tasman’s ships, the Heemskerck and Zeehaen, and the portion of the coast that he discovered on November 1642. The map is oriented with north to the right and records Tasman’s landing place on the northern end of Forestier Peninsula.

On 24 November 1642, Tasman had reached and sighted the west coast of Tasmania, north of Macquarie Harbour. He named his discovery Van Diemen’s Land, after Antonio van Diemen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Proceeding south, Tasman skirted the southern end of Tasmania and turned north-east. He then tried to work his two ships into Adventure Bay on the east coast of South Bruny Island, where he was blown out to sea by a storm. This area he named Storm Bay. Two days later, on 1 December, Tasman anchored to the north of Cape Frederick Hendrick just north of the Forestier Peninsula. On 2 December, two ship’s boats under the command of the Pilot, Major Visscher, rowed through the Marion Narrows into Blackman Bay, and across the west to the outflow of Boomer Creek where they gathered some edible “greens”. Tasman named Frederick Hendrik Bay, which included the present North Bay, Marion Bay and the inlet Blackman Bay (the name Frederick Henry Bay was mistakenly transferred to its present location by Marion Dufresne in 1772). The next day, an attempt was made to land in North Bay. However, because the sea was too rough, the carpenter swam through the surf and planted the Dutch flag. Tasman then claimed formal possession of the land, on 3 December 1642. For two more days, he continued to follow the east coast northward to see how far it went. When the land veered to the north-west at Eddystone Point, he tried to keep in with it but his ships were suddenly hit by the Roaring Forties howling through Bass Strait.

From Francois Valentyn,  Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien, vervattende een naaukeurige en uitvoerige verhandelinge van Nederlands Mogentheyd in die gewesten, benevens eene wydlustige beschryving der Moluccos, Amboina, Banda, Timor, en Solor, Java . Suratte . Choromandel, Pegu, Arracan, Bengale, Mocha, Persien, Malacca, Sumatra, Ceylon, Malabar, Celebes of Macassar, China, Japan, Tayouan of Formosa, Tonkin, Cambodia, Siam, Borneo, Bali, Kaap de Hoede Hoop en van Mauritius, Amsterdam.  1724-1726