Willem Janszoon

Common card · No. 295739

Willem Janszoon (Dutch: [ˈʋɪləm ˈjɑnszoːn]; c. 1570 – c. 1630) was a Dutch navigator and colonial governor. He served in the Dutch East Indies in the periods 1603–1611 and 1612–1616, including as governor of Fort Henricus on the island of Solor. During his voyage of 1605–1606, Janszoon and his crew became the first Europeans known to have seen and land on the coast of Australia. His name is sometimes abbreviated to Willem Jansz, as was customary at his time, but "always pronounced in full and generally still is in the Netherlands where this bit of common knowledge is taught at school." However, the abbreviation Jansz is not the same as the now more predominant unabbreviated but identical Jansz that is a petrified form of Janszoon.

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