[Hollandia Nova Terre Australe]

Thevenot’s seminal map of Australia showing the discoveries of Abel Tasman’s voyages 1642-1643 and earlier Dutch discoveries.

This important map is the first solely devoted to the Australian continent and the first to record the discoveries made by Abel Tasman on his two voyages of exploration in 1642-1644.

First published in 1663 Thevenot issued six known states of this map all with only minor changes. This state being the 3rd, identified by;

• The corrected latitude error where in the 2nd state the engraver placed the number 4 where the 5 should have been
• Added rhumb lines
• Trial islands not added.

The V.O.C. had appointed Tasman on 1 August 1642 as commander of the Heemskerck and Zeehaen, with instructions to explore the unknown and previously undiscovered areas of the South Land, the south-east coast of New Guinea and surrounding islands. Tasman’s two voyages resulted in the charting of the northern, north-western and southern limits of the continent, as well as the discovery of part of the west coast of New Zealand. The map also records the following earlier Dutch discoveries on the Australian coast: Hartog in the Eendracht 1616, Houtman in the Dordrecht and Amsterdam 1619, the van Leeuwin 1622, Carstensz in the Leijden 1623, Nuyts in the Gulden Zeepaert  1627 and de Wit in the Vianen 1628. Thevenot divides the continent with a meridian set at 135 degrees East of Greenwich; the positioning of this meridian falls along the division set out in the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, which divided the newly discovered lands outside of Europe between Spain and Portugal. The lands to the east ‘belonged‘ to Portugal and those to the west, to Spain.

Interestingly when the British government set the boundaries of the colony of New South Wales in 1788 they set the western limits at the same meridian of 135 degrees east of Greenwich, just as it appeared in Thevenot’s map.

Future mapmakers depiction of the Australian continent were then based on Thevenot’s map and they were to remain unchanged until the discovery of the east coast by James Cook in 1769.

From: Thevenot, M. Relations de Divers Voyages Curieux qui n’ont point este publiees, ou qui ont este traduites d’Hacluyt, de Purchas et d’autres voyages Anglais, Hollandais, Portugais, Allemands, Espagnols, et de quelques Persans, Arabes et auteurs orientaux.