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Part 2 - Dutch Settlement in the Gulf of Janszoon
Part 2 - Dutch Settlement in the Gulf of Janszoon​
In 1606 upon his return, Williem Janszoon recommended the point in which he landed, which he named Maurice Bay (after the king) for a settlement. He argued that its sparse amount of natives and its more livable climate than the Dutch East Indies was a good place for a base for Dutch settlers and as a base and headquarters for the Dutch East India Company. While the contemporary Governor-General of the VOC was indifferent to the idea, his successor Jan Pieterszoon Coen thought differently and established the colony in 1620 with a boat of 200 Dutch settlers. One year later when Frederick Bay was more populated, with about 500 settlers moving there since then, with about 700 people there in total, the Dutch East India Company established a base there and moved the head offices to there.
In 1623 Dirk Hartog travelled past North-Western Australia, past the Gulf of Janszoon and around the island of New Guinea. Some new discoveries made Cape Charlotte and Southern New Guinea even more strategically important than ever, which meant more settlements up north. Jan Pieterszoon Coen sent 200 more settlers each to Kessen and Keizer in 1624, securing northern Cape York as Dutch territory.
While there was little growth in the population in the 1620s (2000 people by 1629), it would soon see a massive influx of settlers. In 1631 Peter-jan Heyes of the Dutch East India Company, discovered he could pay the aborigines very little, (e.g. fruit and berries) for them to gather sandalwood for them. The sandalwood business became so massive that "New Holland" (known in the rest of the non-Dutch world as Australis) became the prime immigration destination for Dutch, equivalent to the New World for the British. 5,000 settlers quickly travelled to New Holland in the next 2 years, including the new settlement of Heyes. While some settlers moved to Dutch New Guinea, most travelled to Maurice Bay, Heyes and Keizer. Keizer became one of the biggest settlements in New Holland mainly because the Torres Strait became one of the best and fastest ways to get from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. By 1639 New Holland would have a population of 15,000, more than England's American colonies at the same time. This new successful colony in Australis led the other European powers to gain interest in this new continent, especially Portugal and Spain.
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