In the evening about one hour after sunset we saw many lights on land and four vessels near the shore, two of which betook themselves towards us.
Explorers
Abel Tasman
Born in 1603 in the Netherlands, Abel Tasman was a Dutch navigator and explorer who, in service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), became the first European to reach Tasmania and New Zealand during his 1642-43 voyage. He also effectively circumnavigated Australia without sighting its east coast. Though deemed a commercial failure in his time, his charts and discoveries provided the knowledge base for James Cook's Pacific explorations a century later. Tasmania and the Tasman Sea bear his name.
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Source: Tasman's Journal, Golden Bay encounter, December 1642Verified