HUMANITIES YEAR 9: EARLY SETTLERS. It contains Abel Tasman, James Cook.

1. EARLY EXPLORERS

2. ABEL TASMAN
• In 1642 a Dutchman, Abel Tasman, set out from a Dutch
trading post in Java, Indonesia hoping to find another
large continent east of Australia.
• He had two ships – the HEEMSKERK, which was armed
for fighting, and the ZEEHAEN, which carried goods to
trade.

4. THE HEEMSKERK
• The HEEMSKERK was a sailing warship.
• It carried long-range cannons that were usually made of
bronze, and iron short-range guns.

5. THE ZEEHAEN
• The ZEEHAEN carried the following goods for trade:
• 10 Golconda blankets, 500 Chinese small mirrors, 90
kilograms of ironmongery quantities of cloves, mace,
nutmegs and pewter, 50 Chinese gold wire, 25 pieces of
assorted iron pots, 3 pearls and a large brass basin.

7. LAND AHOY
• Five months after leaving Java, Tasman sighted the west
coast of the South Island.
• He sailed north and anchored in Tasman Bay at the top
of the South Island.
• Warriors from Ngati Tumata Kokiri tribe attacked his
landing boat.
• The boat was rammed by canoes and the warriors struck
the Dutchmen with short, thick pieces of wood (mere).
• Three sailors were killed and one died later of his
wounds. Tasman quickly weighed anchor and sailed off.
• He named the bay Murderers’ Bay.

9. ANOTHER LANDING
• Tasman continued to sail up the west coast of the North
Island. He named the northern cape after the wife of his
Governor-General, Maria van Diemen.
• Tasman hoped not all the “natives” were unfriendly but
when he tried to land on Three Kings Islands he was
driven away by Maori again.

11. NOVO ZEELANDIA
• Tasman called the land he’d
found Staten Landt.
• But after a few years it became
known in Europe as Novo
Zeelandia.
• Zeeland is a coastal area in the
Netherlands.

12. JAMES COOK
• James Cook was born on 28 October 1728 in England.
• When he was 19 he worked as a seaman on a coal-
freighter.
• When he was 27 he joined the Royal Navy.
• He was an excellent navigator and chart-maker.

14. NEW LAND
• Captain Cook was sent to the South Pacific to learn more
about the land discovered by Abel Tasman.
• He wanted to know if it was the great southern continent
that people talked about.

16. YOUNG NICK
• At 2pm on 6 October 1769, Nicholas Young, a boy on the
masthead at Cook’s ship Endeavour, shouted “Land!”
• He was the first European to see the North Island’s east
coast.
• The land he sighted was named after him – Young Nick’s
Head.
• A bottle of rum was his reward for seeing it first.

17. LANDING TROUBLE
• Cook anchored the Endeavour in a bay near the site of
modern Gisborne.
• When he tried to meet with local Maori, his men were
attacked.
• In the fight, many Maori were killed.
• Cook left and named the area Poverty Bay.

19. MORE TROUBLE
• Further down the coast, Cook met more Maori.
• When he tried to barter some cloth for dried fish, they
grabbed a boy off the ship and dragged him into a canoe.
• Cook’s men fired on the canoe and the boy escaped over
the side and swam back to the Endeavour.
• Cook named the area Cape Kidnappers.

21. FRIENDS AT LAST
• Cook did make friends with many tribes along the east coast.
• He spent eleven days at Mercury Bay, off Whitianga.
• Years later, a famous chief, Te Horeta Taniwha, said when he
had been a boy his people had called the Europeans goblins
with eyes in the backs of their heads when they saw them
rowing ashore.
• Captain Cook gave Te Horeta a nail as a present. It was the
first time Maori in this area had seen metal.
• Te Horeta treasured the nail, fitting it to his spear tip and
also using it to make holes in the side-boards of canoes.

23. GUNS
• Cook’s men had guns.
• The Maori called the guns walking-sticks.
• When the Europeans pointed them at the trees, thunder and
lightning was heard and birds fell to the ground.
• The Maori children were terrified and fled into the bush.

25. AROUND NEW ZEALAND
• Captain Cook sailed around North Cape, then down the west
coast of the North Island and anchored in Queen Charlotte
Sound.
• He spent three weeks there collecting fresh food and
repairing the ship.
• Afterwards he sailed through Cook Strait and up to Cape
Turnagain.
• Then he turned southwards to circumnavigate the South
Island.
• He made good maps of the main islands and kept full
records of his meetings with the Maori tribes.

27. BANKS AND PARKINSON
• Not everyone on the Endeavour was a sailor.
• Joseph Banks was a botanist who was on the voyage to
collect and catalogue any new plants, birds and insects they
found.
• Artist Sydney Parkinson sketched scenes from the new land.

29. RETURN TRIPS
• James Cook returned to New Zealand in 1773 and 1777.
• On all his trips he introduced new crops and animals like
potatoes and pigs.
• He also found and fixed many mistakes on the maps that
he’d made on earlier voyages.

30. BLUNDERS
• The Europeans and Maori were keen to trade but because
they didn’t understand each other, there were lots of
misunderstandings and fights.
• Both sides were bloodthirsty.

31. NEWS OF NEW ZEALAND
• James Cook’s journals were read throughout Europe.
• He described the land as full of promise – a place where
new settlers could build a comfortable life.
• He said the Maori people were strong, active, brave, artistic
and war-like.
• New Zealand was suddenly big news in Europe.