Anthony van Diemen: From Bankrupt to Governor-General, 1593-1636. Part I

Most Australians and New Zealanders are at least vaguely familiar with the name Anthony van Diemen. They rightly associate him with Abel Tasman, the first European navigator to sight Tasmania and New Zealand, and generally they are aware also that, during the early decades of British settlement in Tasmania (from 1803 to 1855), the island was known as Van Diemen's Land. Some Australasians also know that Van Diemen was one of the early Dutch Governors-General at Batavia, the man who, in 1642 and again in 1644, sent Tasman on his way to explore and map the unknown Great South Land. And a few particularly well-informed people may further know that Maria Island off the east Tasmanian coast as well as the Cane Maria van Diemen, the northernmost tip of New Zealand's North Island, were named by Tasman after Van Diemen's wife. But beyond these basic facts, little or nothing is commonly known about this Dutch Governor-General. In the popular imagination of the great majority of antipodeans, Van Diemen is a shadowy figure, largely obscured by Abel Tasman, the heroic explorer who sailed bravely forth into uncharted waters.