December 12, 1642 (Horse winter months u), Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand. December


1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand. Abel Tasman (Dutch:
Abel Tasman in 1603 -1659, Oct. 10), Dutch explorers, merchants.
He was born in Groningen, the Netherlands, and the financial support of the Dutch East India Company in 1642 and 1644, he carried out two successful voyage, discovered Tasmania, New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji. The (history www.TodayOnHistory.com)
employed by the Dutch East India Company, in the 1630s, his service on the route of Batavia to the Moluccas. In 1638, his wife also received Batavia, settled in the East. In the subsequent years, (TodayinHistory.cn) He has been to Japan and Palembang. (Lsjt.org)
1642, he was ordered to find the "lost southern continent", November 24, he discovered the island of Tasmania, and the Governor of the Dutch East India in the name of Anthony van Diemen named it as "Van Diemen. December 13, he arrived in the South Island of New Zealand, a little exploration, he mistakenly thought it was the southern tip of South America, then continue northward, December 18, his fleet was Maori attacks, loss of four sailor. January 21, 1643, he was found in Tonga, then return flight, en route discovery Fiji. After the island of New Guinea, he returned to Batavia on June 15.
second voyage in 1644, Tasman across the Torres Strait, but he did not realize that the Australian continent in the south, missed the discovery of the New World opportunity. His voyage found in many places, but could not open up new trade routes, therefore, until a century later, James Cook rediscovered the merits of the Tasman was only really admit.
now, his name was included in the list of the greatest navigator, Tasmania and the Tasman Sea are named after him.
Comments: dare battles to great discoveries.