PACIFIC EXPLORERS WAS TASMAN FIRST WHITE MAN TO SEE NEW ZEALAND?

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27664, 21 May 1955, Page 6

PACIFIC EXPLORERS WAS TASMAN FIRST WHITE MAN TO SEE NEW ZEALAND?

(Specialty Written tor Th* Preu*’.

(By

H. A. H. INSULL]

Was New Zealand ever visited by white men before Abel Tasman s discovery of the country- in 1642? I well believe that, as Dr. T. M. Hocken once suggested more than 60 years ago, a search of the archives bf the Catholic Church in Spain or in Rome may yield evidence of the European discovery oi New Zealand before Tasman’s visit. What a stir that discovery would From early in the Sixteenth century the Pacific Ocean was traversed many times by European navigators, and by the beginning of the Nineteenth century details of the voyages of Magellan, Torres, Mendana and Quiros, Shouten and Le Maire, and of Roggeveen had been common knowledge for some 150 years. The voyages of all these navigators took them along courses well to the north of New Zealand; yet in the early 1800’s it was widely believed in England, even by some of the highest authorities, that Tasman might not have been the first European to visit our shores. Indeed, on one map widely used until 1850 and bearing the imprimatur “Approved by the Chart Committee of the Admiralty” is mscribed the definite assertion, “the Eastern Coast was known to the Portuguese about 1550." Rochette’s Map This interesting chart is known as Rochette’s map. It was first published in 1803 and a second edition was printed in 1817. In the main it is obviously a reproduction of Captain Cook’s map, for the 1803 edition • shows Stewart Island as a peninsula and Banks Peninsula as an island. Yet, instead of Cook’s name East Cape, there is the significant appellation “Cabo da Fermoso, 1550”; and the eastern side of Cook Strait is labelled “Gulf of’ the Portuguese. 1550." Again, along the coast of both islands on the Tasman Sea side appears the interesting legend: “New Zeeland: Discovered and named by Tasman in 1642, but whose eastern coast was known to the Portuguese about 1550.” This chart is known as “the Rochette map” because of -the inscription it bears: “Drawn by L. S. de la Rochette (London). Published by W. Faden, Geographer to the King and H.R.H. the Prince Regent—Approved by the Chart Committee of the Admiralty.” If the Portuguese had yi fact not visited New Zealand in the Sixteenth century, how . came it that a reputable map maker should incorporate these names? Lef us glance briefly at the evidence he would «bp likely to have available. ‘ ’ French Maps A French authority, the Abbe de la Borde, in his “Historic Abridge de le Met du Sud” asserts that in 1503 one of his countrymen, Capitaine Sieur Binot Paulmier de Gouneville, of Harfleur, Normandy, on a voyage of exploration reached “a great country situated; between 50deg and 60deg south latitude.” De Gouneville sojourned with the natives for’ six months in a river about the size of the Orne, and “brought back to France one of the natives who married into his family, a descendant being Abbe Jean Paulmier.” Those who have examined the evidence carefully, however, point out that there is nothing to show that the native was a Maori and that the course which de Gouneyille , steered . would not have led him into the south-west Pacific. In 1542 John Rotz, hydrogrqpher for King Henry VIII of England, drew a map of- the world incorporating the idea of a land in the vicinity of New Zealand. This map was possibly based on the Dauphin chart, a French map drawn some time between 1530 and 1536, and suggests that the existence 'of New Zealand was known to Europeans more than 400 years ago. In 1550 yet another Frenchman. Pierre Desceliers, published a chart showing a land where New Zealand is situated, and this soon came intd British hands, and is now to be seen in the British Museum. Evidence of the discovery of 'New Zealand up to this date is. however.* still vague. The Arias Claim In 1576 the famous Spanish navigator Juan Femaitdez, recorded that after sailing for one month upon courses west and south-west from Chile, he came upon a fertile and ’pleasant land inhabited by light-complexioned, exceedingly hospitable people, “welldisciplined, peaceful and civil,” and he reported that on the coafct he had seen the ' mouths of very large rivers. This "fertile land” may well have been New Zealand, and it was while preparing for a second visit that Fernandez met his death. Kiiown to present-day historians is a memorial to King Philip 111 bf Spain by one. Dr. Juan Luis Arias, on behalf of the Franciscans of Chile, earnestly beseeching His Catholic Majesty to anticipate the English and the Dutch by taking possession of the newly discovered islands in the Pacific and so prevent the natives from evangelisation by heretics. Written in 1610, }“ 1S memorial of Dr. Arias mentions r emar kable discoveries made by Mendana, and Torres, but it is . possible that not all discoveries were made common knowledge. question. Dr. Hocken (Trans, N.Z.. institute. Vol. 27, p, 617)

said in 1894: “The prime Spanish and Portuguese exnS? were not to prosecute researchSr* l c “ riosit y- ba t the heathen, to amass wealth --f" 1 annex distant lands to their ** nations. Hence each maritime was jealous of its neighbour S guarded its discoveries with ' care from prying curiosity it followed that published aeS?" ’cf voyages were fe-. ; the were consigned to close were utilised only as Oceanian If published it was not find latitudes and longitudes Sj! in a way that must have bem t,al voking to a rival sailor. SimiiSj: old maps are in existence iSS 1 ’ hundred years before TasrrrnX ? • of whose history we know litti-™”*-of which, certainly, so far a?* exists no written or printed Thus we are justified in thtaS 1 that there are buried in old archives of Portugal , Spain, journals which if found give an earlier account of ar Zealand than those we our earliest. A search for® should be made, and doubUe™ well repay the discovery n- i ll bound chests of Portugal and e ■ are the nrobable repositories‘of tK2 treasures: or these may have S emptied into papal and monkish nes, upon whose shelves the still are resting, covered with th. cumulated dust of ages." R ’ Another point missed by that because of the meridian inf sL" desilhas (the line of demarcati™. iJ‘ tween the Spanish and ftSL!* spheres of influence in the P».i« , neither the Portuguese nor the ish would have thought it wi« , publish discoveries outside th»V ~ spective spheres New Zealand !.. I, what was once known as “the Pacific” and in view of the taitSta. dispute over the Molucca Ish? which for so many years existed il 1 tween the Governments of ih’ drid and Lisbon, it would not been politic for the Portuguese aS* ernment to have aggravated with details of the fresh discover.!! yet another new land.- Isco y«T of A New Zealander’s Reseanke. Sixty years later, the feasihffib „> Hocken’s suggestion was rewnti. proven by another New Zealand «t> dent, the Rev. Celsus Kelly OFM who has unearthed in the archiv« the Franciscan'order in Spain art Rome documents which throw IMrt™ the exploits of at least one Sn! pioneer Spanish explorers at the ciflc. Father Kelly was formerly a priest at St. Francis Retreat House Hillsborough, Auckland, and the £ suits of his researches ate of suffleiant importance to be publiahed by Si Hakluyt Society this year. y * Briefly the story of Father Kelly’s work is as follows. In 1930 when ths journal of Don Diego de Prado t Tovar was edited and published by ths Hakluyt Society, it was general)? ™ lieved that the final word on the Quiros expedition from Peru to the South Pacific in 1605-1606 had been written, and that no other jourrul m the expedition existed. This view, however, was not shsred by Father Kelly, who believed that other journals, written by the friars who accompanied the expedition M chaplains and missionaries, ‘were Ji existence and probably would be fount! in a European or American archive of the Franciscan Order. His theory was borne out 20 years later. wti»ii the journal of Friar Martin de Manilla commissary of the Franciscans in the Quiros expedition, was found in-'Rrm, This Munilla journal is a day to day account of the events in Quirosg jh‘n the Captina. In its Fn-lish trem'a. tion it will run into about 30 OTO worht Its discovery after 350 years If one of the most important finds in 'h.field of Pacific history in recent years, and Father Kelly has found other manuscripts of importance tn ferring to this expedition. The possibility, therefore.- fivt the Church’s archives may yet yield evi» dence of the pre-Tasman discover* o! New Zealand by Euroueans is reiil. In the meantime the exirtadca on Rochette’s map of New Zealand cf the Portuguese name “Cabo da Fenvoso. fo r sast5 ast ca P e ’ and Gulf of the Portuguese. 1550” at the eastern side of Cook Strait. unexplained. Father Kelly 6r ottert like him may be inspired to solve the mystery. jB -■ "