Abel Tasman

But because our country is a lot fucking older than yours, we have some history about why some places have the name they have.

You lot live in Tasmania, named after Abel Tasman.

He is a Dutchie.

We did know that.

Even in the latter, or Van Diemen's Land, are found special species which exist only on that small bit of the earth's surface.

Tasmania, which is separated from the southern extremity of Australia by a strait about one hundred and forty miles in width, was first discovered in sixteen thirty-three by Abel Tasman, a famous Dutch navigator, who supposed it to be a portion of Australia, then known as New Holland.

The celebrated Captain Cook visited it one hundred and fifty years later; but it was not until about eighteen hundred, when Captain Flinders, exploring the southern coast of Australia, discovered the strait, that Tasmania was known to be an island.

As Mr. Bass, surgeon of the British ship which had cruised in those waters, had already affirmed that such a strait existed, Captain Flinders named it Bass Strait in his honor.

Isn't that interesting? Um, this has all turned into, like, the Dutch East India Company.

Abel Tasman returns to Batavia after discovering Tasmania on this day in 1643, and without realizing it, he'd actually circumnavigated Australia.

Jesus Christ, you-- I mean, it does raise some questions, doesn't it, about Abel? Was he indeed Abel? It-- He hasn't realized he's actually sailed his boat around Australia.

I would've just thought, "Is that still bit, bit of land still on the left? I recognize that bit." Oh.

Exactly.

They were some of the most prolific, aggressive traders and explorers in history, particularly their eastward expansion.

The Varangians, right? The Swedish Vikings who went east instead of west.

Exactly.

It is.

But how? How did a heavy bronze Tamil bell get to New Zealand in the 1400s? We know there was no established trade route there.

This is where we have to rely on forensic deduction and meteorology because there are absolutely no written records of Tamil explorers mapping New Zealand.

The most widely accepted synthesis of the evidence points to the blown off course merchant vessel theory.

Yes, Frizz.

Abel Tasman.

Abel Tasman.

Abel Tasman.

Strong name.

The Dutch, the Dutch explorer.

Oh.

I guess.

We're not in New Zealand though.

Oh, Tasman.

Boom.

Yeah,

challenges

you to a war, blows their trumpet, but then you like pwn them.

So Tasman just got out of there.

So sucks to be those four men that were just sacrificed because of miscommunication.

That's an easy one.

Abel Tasman, the Dutchman, was the first European to spot Aotearoa, Land of the Long White Cloud.

And the name New Zealand comes from Zealand in Dutch, which translates C-S-E-A, Sealand, after the islands were seen by Abel Tasman.

Zeeland is a province in the Netherlands.

And the Tasman Sea is the name of the ocean between New Zealand and Australia.