FranÃ§ois Thijssen

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FranÃ§ois Thijssen

François Thijssen or Frans Thijsz (died 13 October 1638?) was a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
explorer

Exploration

Exploration is the act of searching or traveling a terrain for the purpose of discovery, e.g. of unknown people, including space , for Petroleum, gas, coal, ores, caves, water , or information....
who is famous because of his travel along the South coast of Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
.

He was the captain of the ship t Gulden Zeepaerdt (The Golden Seahorse) when sailing from Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headlands and bays on the Atlantic Ocean coast of South Africa. There is a very common misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa and the dividing point between the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Oceans, but in fact the southernmost point is Cape Agulhas, about 150 kilometres t...
to Batavia. On this travel, he ended up too far to the south and on January 26th 1627 he discovered the coast of Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. This was near to Cape Leeuwin
Cape Leeuwin

Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australia , in the state of Western Australia.A few small islands and rocks, the Saint Alouarn Islands, extend further to the south....
.

Thijssen continued to sail eastwards, mapping more than 1500 kilometres of Australia's coast.

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François Thijssen or Frans Thijsz (died 13 October 1638?) was a Dutch
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
explorer
Exploration

Exploration is the act of searching or traveling a terrain for the purpose of discovery, e.g. of unknown people, including space , for Petroleum, gas, coal, ores, caves, water , or information....
who is famous because of his travel along the South coast of Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
.

He was the captain of the ship t Gulden Zeepaerdt (The Golden Seahorse) when sailing from Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headlands and bays on the Atlantic Ocean coast of South Africa. There is a very common misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa and the dividing point between the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Oceans, but in fact the southernmost point is Cape Agulhas, about 150 kilometres t...
to Batavia. On this travel, he ended up too far to the south and on January 26th 1627 he discovered the coast of Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. This was near to Cape Leeuwin
Cape Leeuwin

Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australia , in the state of Western Australia.A few small islands and rocks, the Saint Alouarn Islands, extend further to the south....
.

Thijssen continued to sail eastwards, mapping more than 1500 kilometres of Australia's coast. He called the land t Land van Pieter Nuyts
Pieter Nuyts

Pieter Nuyts was a Netherlands explorer. He was a List of governors of Formosa, later known as Taiwan, June 28 1627 till May 9 1630.During his time as governor, Nuyts, along with his son Laurens, was kidnapped in the Dutch fortress of Fort Zeelandia by Japanese traders on June 29, 1629 in a dispute over tax....
(The Land of Pieter Nuyts
Pieter Nuyts

Pieter Nuyts was a Netherlands explorer. He was a List of governors of Formosa, later known as Taiwan, June 28 1627 till May 9 1630.During his time as governor, Nuyts, along with his son Laurens, was kidnapped in the Dutch fortress of Fort Zeelandia by Japanese traders on June 29, 1629 in a dispute over tax....
), referring to the highest VOC
Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a trading company, which was established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia....
official aboard his ship. Part of Thijssen's map shows the islands St. Francis and St. Peter, now known as the Nuyts Archipelago. The ship, which had been built in Middelburg
Middelburg

Middelburg is a municipality and a city in the south-western Netherlands and the Capital of the province of Zeeland. It is situated on the peninsula of Walcheren....
and left Zeeland
Zeeland

Zeeland , also called Zealand in English language and Zeelandic, is a province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands and a strip bordering Belgium....
on 22 May 1626, finally arrived in Batavia on 10 April 1627. Thijssens observations were included as soon as 1628 by the VOC cartographer Hessel Gerritsz
Hessel Gerritsz

Hessel Gerritsz was a Dutch Republic engraver, cartographer and publisher. Despite strong competition, he is considered by some ?unquestionably the chief Dutch cartographer of the 17th century? ...
in a chart of the Indies and New Holland.

This voyage defined most of the southern coast of Australia and discouraged the notion that "New Holland", as it was then known, was linked to Antarctica. Much later, Thijssens findings led Jean Pierre Purry to propose a Dutch colony on the mainland there in 1717-18. In his 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver's Travels , officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships, is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers' tales" literary sub-genre....
, Jonathon Swift placed Lilliput and Blefuscu
Lilliput and Blefuscu

Lilliput and Blefuscu are two fictional island Fictional country that appear in the first part of the 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift....
near the unimaginably remote Nuyts Archipelago a hundred years after their discovery. Indeed, present day South Australia
South Australia

South Australia is a States and territories of Australia of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories....
would not be visited again by Europeans for 165 years, when in 1792 the French explorer Bruny d'Entrecasteaux searched there for his lost compatriot La Pérouse
Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse

Jean Fran?ois de Galaup, comte de La P?rouse was a History of the French Navy officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in Oceania....
.

Thijssen took the "Gulden Zeepaerdt" back to Middelburg on a 1629-1630 voyage. He was captain on the ship "Valk" which sailed in 1636 from Zeeland to Batavia. Later, this ship perished near Pulicat
Pulicat

Pulicat is a fishing village in Thiruvallur District, of Tamil Nadu states and territories of India, South India. It is about 60 km north of Chennai, on the barrier island of Sriharikota, which separates Pulicat Lake from the Bay of Bengal....
in southeast India on 13 October 1638, though it is unclear if François Thijssen was its captain at the time.

Sources

Michael Pearson Great Southern Land. The maritime explorations of Terra Australis (2005) (published by the Australian government department of the environment and heritage)