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The New Zealand Reader

Introduction

Introduction.

Down to the end of the fifteenth century the trade between India and the British Isles was almost entirely in the hands of the Arabs or Saracens. Their four principal marts in the East were Calicut, Ormuz, Aden, and Malacca. Their route lay through the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, and all their merchandise was carried across the Isthmus of Suez on the backs of camels, and shipped again at the other side. Thus every bale that was transported from the Indies to Europe, or from Europe to the Indies, had to make two sea voyages, besides a journey over land.

The last few years of the fifteenth century were marked by great enterprise and activity in navigation and discovery. The manifold inconvenience and the expense of the overland route to India had become intolerable; and many of the greatest minds in Europe were occupied with the problem of finding a better way.

The whalers of the North Sea spoke of open waters to the north of Norway and Muscovy: possibly a ship might pass round that way to the Indies. Or, if the world was really round, as thoughtful men were beginning to believe, why should not a man get to India by sailing west instead of east? So said the Genoese mariner Columbus, as early as 1480, but it was twelve years before he could get any one to trust him with a ship to make the attempt.

Now the Portuguese of those days were great navigators, and had made voyages far along the western coasts of page 2Africa, in their eagerness to extend their commerce, and in their zeal to propagate the Christian faith. No one yet knew how far Africa extended to the south. There were many who held that Africa was joined on to the Unknown Southern Continent, which was then believed to occupy all the Antarctic region of the world. But the Portuguese voyagers had observed how the west coast of Africa trends to the south-east; and there were some of them who thought there might be open water between Africa and the Unknown South Land; in which case it might be possible to reach India by sailing round Africa on the south. The existence of open sea in that direction was proved in 1486, when the Portuguese mariner Bartholomew Diaz discovered the Cape of Good Hope.

Six years later, Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic with three ships of Spain, thinking to get that way to the eastern coasts and islands of Asia. The islands which he discovered on that voyage were presumed to lie not far from the eastern side of India; and, having been reached by sailing west, they received the name of West Indies, which they bear to this day.

The first to penetrate to India by the Cape route was Vasco da Gama, another Portuguese, who crowned the discovery of his countryman, Diaz, by anchoring before Calicut on the 20th of May, 1498. For about eighty years from that time the naval supremacy of Portugal gave her a monopoly of the trade with the East. Her ships brought the ivory and ebony, the silks and spices and jewels of the Indies to Lisbon; from which port they were carried by Dutch merchants to all the nations of northern Europe.

But there was trouble in store for Dutch and Portuguese both. In 1566 it came into the heart of Philip II., King of Spain, to introduce the Spanish Inquisition into the Low Countries, which were then under his dominion. His sturdy Dutch subjects would have none of his Inquisition, but rose up and rebelled against him; and for ten years they were fighting against his greatest captains, till they had broken the Spanish yoke from off their necks.

Then Philip turned his evil eye on Portugal; and in 1580 he took the crown of Portugal by force, and put it on his own head, and shut the port of Lisbon against the Dutch merchantmen, and flattered himself that he had page 3ruined their trade. For Spain was now mistress of the broad and narrow seas; and none might presume to trade with the Indies, East or West, without first paying tribute to Spain.

But neither the Dutch nor the English of those days were of a temper to submit tamely to the arrogant pretensions of Spain. So, when Philip sent his Invincible Armada in 1588 to annex the British Islands and reconquer the Low Countries, Dutch and English combined to resist him to the death. We have all heard how the great Armada perished off the face of the deep; how the power and the pride of Spain were broken; and how all Europe breathed more freely when that dark tyranny was overpast.

Numerous English, French, and Dutch trading companies were soon fitting out vessels to poach on what had hitherto been the sacred preserves of Portugal and Spain. While the English directed their enterprise more to the Americas and the West Indies, the Dutch, having already for many years been the only European retailers of Oriental wares, naturally gave their chief attention to the East. The first English East India Company was chartered by Queen Elizabeth on the last day of the year 1600. The Dutch East India Company was formed in March, 1602, by the enforced amalgamation of several previously existing associations. By the year 1620 all the principal settlements of the Portuguese in the East Indies had fallen into the hands of the Dutch. Before the middle of the seventeenth century, before either the English or the French had an acre of ground in India to call their own, the Dutch Company were virtually masters of the Island of Java. Under the guns of a strong fortress which they built there, and to which they gave the name of Batavia, they had stablished a factory or emporium for the exchange of European and Asiatic merchandise. Here were the headquarters of the sovereign Company, and here the Dutch Governor-General of the Indies held his court. His courtiers were the noble and wealthy Directors of the Company, who formed the Raad or Council of the Indies, and whose mansions adorned the neighbouring bays and islands.

But it must not be thought that either the French or the English had been idle all this time. Though not so page 4successful as the Dutch, they had nevertheless been making strenuous and unceasing efforts to gain a foothold on the continent of India. The English had already in 1615 succeeded in ousting the Portuguese from their settlement at Surat; and in 1639 they had established the factory of Fort St. George, the nucleus of the future Presidency of Madras.

The increasing influence of England and France in the East was causing much uneasiness to the Dutch Company, which was naturally unwilling to share the immense profits of the East India trade with any foreign interlopers. So in 1642 the Governor-General and Council of the Indies resolved that something must be done without delay to preserve and extend Dutch influence and commerce in the East. Far away to the south and east of New Guinea there might be other lands with which profitable commercial relations might be established. And it was of the utmost importance to secure the new trade for the Dutch Company, and to take care that no other nation got any share of it. They accordingly decided to send out an expedition to discover the Unknown Southern Continent.

In order to insure the success of the expedition, it was placed under the command of one of the Company's ablest and most experienced captains, Abel Jansen Tasman. He was to have command of two ships: the Heemskerk, at whose main he was to fly his flag as Commandeur or Admiraal; and the Zeehaan, which was to serve as a fluit or store ship. Both vessels appear to have been of considerable size for those days, having three masts each, and were well armed, and plentifully provided with everything that was considered likely to promote the success of the undertaking. They carried provisions for twelve months, and rice for eighteen. The officers were all specially selected for the particular service, and the two crews—sixty men on the Heemskerk and fifty on her consort—were all picked men. To assist him in the execution of his task, Tasman was provided with a Raad, or Board, or Council, consisting of the following six officers:—

Ide't Jerksen-Holman, Captain of the Heemskerk;

Francis Jakobsen-Visscher, Pilot-Major, Upper Steersman (or First Mate) of the Heemskerk;

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Gerrit Jansen, Captain of the Zeehaan;

Isaac Gilsemans, Chapman, or Supercargo;

Abraham Coomans, Under Chapman;

Henry Pietersen, Upper Steersman of the Zeehaan.

Tasman was chairman of the Raad, with two votes, except that on questions of navigation Jakobsen had the two votes. If anything should happen to Tasman, Captain't Jerksen-Holman was to take his place. When the Raad had to deal with matters of discipline and the administration of justice, the two boatswains were also to be present and to vote. Coomans was to act as secretary, and to keep the minutes of the Raad.

Some of Tasman's principal instructions were as follows: To proceed first to the Mauritius, and anchor under Fort Prince Frederick Henry; to present his letters of introduction to the commandant, Adrian Van der Stel, and with his assistance to complete his stores of timber, fuel, water, and meat; to leave the Mauritius not later than the middle of October, in quest of the Unknown South Continent; to take possession of all discoveries in the name of the States-General of the United Provinces; to be kind and conciliatory to the inhabitants; and to keep a strict and detailed record of everything seen and done on the voyage.

Tasman's Log is the earliest known record of European intercourse with New Zealand. It has been alleged, however, that the country had previously been discovered by the Portuguese; nor is their silence on the matter any disproof of the allegation. A Government that went to the expense of fitting out a costly expedition to explore unknown seas always endeavoured to keep the knowledge so acquired secret, for its own exclusive use and benefit; and any person who presumed to divulge such information would have been liable to severe punishment as a traitor to his country. It is quite possible that among the state papers preserved in the archives of Lisbon a Portuguese logbook may yet be brought to light anticipating by a century the discovery of New Zealand by Tasman.