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

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

who explored the southern coast of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. He was the captain of the ship t Gulden Zeepaerdt'' (''The Golden Seahorse'') when sailing from

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is ...

to Batavia. On this voyage, he ended up too far to the south and on 26 January 1627 he came upon the coast of Australia, near

Cape Leeuwin Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly (but not most southerly) mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia. Description A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further in Flinders B ...

, the south-westernmost tip of the continent. Thijssen continued to sail eastwards, mapping more than of Australia's coast. He called the land t Land van

Pieter Nuyts Pieter Nuyts or Nuijts (born 1598 – 11 December 1655) was a Dutch explorer, diplomat and politician. He was part of a landmark expedition of the Dutch East India Company in 1626–27 which mapped the southern coast of Australia. He became t ...

'' (''The Land of

''), referring to the highest VOC official aboard his ship. Part of Thijssen's map shows the islands St Francis and St Peter, now known collectively with their respective groups as the

Nuyts Archipelago The Nuyts Archipelago is an island group located in South Australia in the Great Australian Bight to the south of the town of Ceduna on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula. It consisting of mostly granitic islands and reefs that prov ...

. He also mapped the coastline around Fowlers Bay. The ship, which had been built in Middelburg and left

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

on 22 May 1626, finally arrived in Batavia on 10 April 1627. Thijssen's observations were included as soon as 1628 by the VOC cartographer

Hessel Gerritsz Hessel Gerritsz ( – buried 4 September 1632) was a Dutch engraver, cartographer, and publisher. He was one of the notable figures in the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography. Despite strong competition, he is considered by some "unques ...

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 Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

. Much later, Thijssen's findings led Jean-Pierre Pury to propose a Dutch colony on the mainland there in 1717–18. Thijssen took the ''Gulden Zeepaerdt'' back to Middelburg in 1629–1630. He was captain on the ship '' Valk'' which sailed in 1636 from Zeeland to Batavia. Later, this ship perished near

Pulicat Pulicat or Pazhaverkadu is a historic seashore town in Chennai Metropolitan Area at Thiruvallur District, of Tamil Nadu state, India. It is about north of Chennai and from Elavur, on the southern periphery of the Pulicat Lake. Pulicat lake i ...

in southeast India on 13 October 1638, though it is unclear if François Thijssen was its captain at the time. In his 1726 novel ''

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''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 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...

'',

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Du ...

placed

Lilliput and Blefuscu Lilliput and Blefuscu are two fictional island nations that appear in the first part of the 1726 novel ''Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift. The two islands are neighbours in the South Indian Ocean, separated by a channel wide. Both a ...

near the unimaginably remote

, a hundred years after their discovery.

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

was not visited again by Europeans for 165 years, when in 1792 the French explorer

Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni, chevalier d'Entrecasteaux () (8 November 1737 – 21 July 1793) was a French naval officer, explorer and colonial governor. He is perhaps best known for his exploration of the Australian coast in 1792, while ...

searched there for his lost compatriot La Pérouse.

General references

*
Data on trips of the VOC ships ‘’Gulden Zeepaard’’ and ‘’Valk’’

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thijssen, Francois Year of birth missing 16th-century births 1638 deaths 17th-century Dutch explorers Explorers of Western Australia Explorers of South Australia Sailors on ships of the Dutch East India Company Maritime history of the Dutch East India Company Early modern Netherlandish cartography