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Title of Collection
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Ulrich Gerhard Lauts collection of manuscript extracts on Dutch 17th century explorers including Abel Janz. Tasman and Maarten Gerritsz. Vries
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Subject
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Voyages and travels
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Discovery and exploration
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Australia--Discovery and exploration
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New Zealand--History
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Dutch East Indies
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Manuscripts, Dutch
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Category
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1. Settlement
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Language
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Dutch
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Current holder
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State Library of New South Wales
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Access rights
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Request at location
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Rights
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Out of copyright. Please acknowledge: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
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Physical format
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Manuscripts
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Series number
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MLMSS 11831/Box 1X
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Item number
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n5lveOE9
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Description
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0.33 metres of textual material (1 outsize box) - 33 x 24.5 cm - manuscript
22 extracts in 1 portfolio, [Kampen?], [1840s?] and [18th century?] All part of the study collection of Ulrich Gerhard Lauts with exception of one extract titled ‘Een kort verhaal uyt het journael van den Commandeur Abel Jansen Tasman int ontdecken van 't onbekende zuijd lant’, which is written in a neat 18th-century hand. All other tracts are written in a 19th-century hand by G. Lauts. Preserved in a contemporary folder.
This collection consists of annotated copies of original manuscripts made by Dutch historian Ulrich Gerhard Lauts some of which came from the archive of the Amsterdam patrician family Huydecoper-Van Maarsseveen one of whose members, Jan Jacobsz. Huydecoper (1541-1624) was a founder of the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
Lauts’ copies mainly concern Abel Jansz. Tasman (1603-1659), Maarten Gerritsz. Vries (1589-1647) and other Dutch 17th-century explorers employed by the VOC. Tasman is best known for his voyages between 1642 and 1644 when he is considered to have made the first European discovery of Tasmania, New Zealand and Tongatapu. The present collection contains an 18th-century extract (not by Lauts) from a journal recording Tasman's first voyage as well as an extract, signed by Lauts, from a manuscript journal by Tasman himself. In this journal, Tasman describes his important first voyage from 14 August 1642 to 15 June 1643.
Also included is an extract by Lauts from a manuscript journal by Cornelis Jansz. Coen. first mate on the ship Castricum which gives an account of the famous 1643 expedition of Maarten Gerritsz. Vries to the north-western Pacific Ocean to look for legendary gold and silver islands in the Pacific.
The collection contains instructions for both Tasman and Frans Jacobsz. Visscher, Tasman's pilot-major on his first voyage, and also for Vries, all three signed by Anthony van Diemen and other officials of the VOC. In addition, the collection contains a description of Tasman’s voyage by Visscher dated 22 January 1642, a treatise on how to use a compass and a detailed list of the most important Dutch discoveries, by whom they were discovered and why they were so named.
This collection would have been used by Lauts in his writings on 17th century Dutch explorations in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific including his biography of Tasman. The Library’s holdings of related material include the Huijdecoper journal (an extract of the journal no longer in existence, kept by Tasman during the voyage 1642-1643) which was purchased from the Huijdecoper (or Huydecoper) family in 1926, the same family from whose archives much of this collection derives.