ABEL JANSEN, one of the most celebrated of the Dutch navigators, was born at Hoorn about the beginning of the seventeenth century. Having entered the service of the Dutch East India Company, he soon rose to distinction, and was for some time employed in cruising about the Chinese and Japanese seas. In 1642 he was chosen by Anthony Van Diemen, the governor-general of India, to conduct a voyage of discovery in the South Seas. He sailed from Batavia with two ships on the 14th of August, and directed his course first to Mauritius, whence he sailed first S.E. and then E. across the Indian Ocean, till on the 24th November he discovered land, to which he gave the name of Van Diemen after the governor-general. Continuing his voyage to the S.E., he doubled what he conceived to be the southern extremity of the Australian continent, but which, in reality, was the southern extremity of the island of Tasmania or Van Diemen’s Land. After proceeding a short distance northwards, he was met by contrary winds, and turning eastwards, he in a short time discovered New Zealand. He made numerous other important discoveries in these seas, and after an absence of ten months, returned to Batavia. In 1644, he was sent on a second voyage of discovery, but of this expedition nothing is known with certainty. (See Australasia, vol. iv. p. 252.) Neither is anything known of the after-life of Tasman, or of the time, manner, or place of his death.