The Search for Terra Australis Incognita :: essays research papers

During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth century, the Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch sailors explored a large part of the world. They discovered a lot of land in the South East Asia but wanted to travel further south. The explorers were interested in Terra Austrails Incognita (meaning unknown south land), to expand on their trade and colonies as they were seeking more power. The trade from south East Asia, at the time, was very lucrative, so exploring the unknown southern land below it, was a good opportunity to look for more. Two, very famous explorers were William Jansz and Able Tasman. William Janzs made the trip to Australia on a ship called the Duyfken. His reason to explore it was because it was thought to be rich in gold. Able Tasman wanted to discover the unknown southern land and was given two ships to complete the trip to Australia, the Heemskerk and the Zeehaen. In 1606, William Jansz sailed to New Guinea on the Duyfken to try to discover new land. This voyage eventually lead him to Terra Austrais Incognita, where he was to unfortunately meet the aboriginals, who were unfamiliar and unsure about foreigners and didn?t welcome him very nicely. Jansz thought of them as ?wild, cruel, black savages? In 1642, Able Tasman, made the voyage towards the southern land in the Heemskerk and the Zeehaen. He discovered and explored an island, and thought it was inhabitant by giants, because of cuts in the trees about a giant?s height. He named the island van demon?s land. He then traveled to New Guinea in 1644 to see if Terra Austrails Incognita was connected to the computer. Australia wasn?