The following list is composed of (largely) unknown lands that were discovered by people from the Netherlands, or being the first documented Europeans to discover certain areas.
Explorations Orange Islands (1594)
During his first journey in 1594, Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz discovered the Orange Islands, at the northern extremity of Nova Zembla.
Svalbard (1596)
On 10 June 1596, Barentsz and Dutchman Jacob van Heemskerk discovered Bear Island,Grimbly, Shona (2001). Atlas of Exploration, p. 47Mills, William J. (2003). Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1, p. 62–65Pletcher, Kenneth (2010). The Britannica Guide to Explorers and Explorations That Changed the Modern World, p. 162 a week before their discovery of Spitsbergen Island.
The first undisputed discovery of the archipelago was an expedition led by the Dutch mariner Willem Barentsz, who was looking for the Northern Sea Route to China.Arlov (1994): 9 He first spotted Bjørnøya on 10 June 1596Arlov (1994): 10 and the northwestern tip of Spitsbergen on 17 June. The sighting of the archipelago was included in the accounts and maps made by the expedition and Spitsbergen was quickly included by cartographers. The name Spitsbergen, meaning "pointed mountains" (from the Dutch spits – pointed, bergen – mountains), was at first applied to both the main island and the Svalbard archipelago as a whole.
Winter surviving in the High Arctic (1596–1597)
The search for the Northern Sea Route in the 16th century led to its exploration. Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz reached the west coast of Novaya Zemlya in 1594, and in a subsequent expedition of 1596 rounded the Northern point and wintered on the Northeast coast. Willem Barentsz, Jacob van Heemskerck and their crew were blocked by the pack ice in the Kara Sea and forced to winter on the east coast of Novaya Zemlya. The wintering of the shipwrecked crew in the 'Saved House' was the first successful wintering of Europeans in the High Arctic. Twelve of the 17 men managed to survive the polar winter (De Veer, 1917). Barentsz died during the expedition, and may have been buried on the northern island."Search for Barents: Evaluation of Possible Burial Sites on North Novaya Zemlya, Russia" , Jaapjan J. Zeeberg et al., Arctic Vol. 55, No. 4 (December 2002) p. 329–338
Falkland Islands/Sebald Islands (1600) In 1600 the Dutch navigator Sebald de Weert made the first undisputed sighting of the Falkland Islands. It was on his homeward leg back to the Netherlands after having left the Straits of Magellan that Sebald De Weert noticed some unnamed and uncharted islands, at least islands that did not exist on his nautical charts. There he attempted to stop and replenish but was unable to land due to harsh conditions. The islands Sebald de Weert charted were a small group off the northwest coast of the Falkland Islands and are in fact part of the Falklands. De Weert then named these islands the "Sebald de Weert Islands" and the Falklands as a whole were known as the Sebald Islands until well into the 18th century.
Pennefather River, Northern Australia (1606)
The Dutch ship, Duyfken, led by Willem Janszoon, made the first documented European landing in Australia in 1606.J.P. Sigmond and L.H. Zuiderbaan (1979) Dutch Discoveries of Australia. Rigby Ltd, Australia. p. 19–30 Although a theory of Portuguese discovery in the 1520s exists, it lacks definitive evidence.McIntyre, K.G. (1977) The Secret Discovery of Australia, Portuguese ventures 200 years before Cook, Souvenir Press, Menindie Robert J. King, "The Jagiellonian Globe, a Key to the Puzzle of Jave la Grande", The Globe: Journal of the Australian Map Circle, No. 62, 2009, p. 1–50.Robert J. King, "Regio Patalis: Australia on the map in 1531?", The Portolan, Issue 82, Winter 2011, p. 8–17. Precedence of discovery has also been claimed for China, France,Credit for the discovery of Australia was given to Frenchman Binot Paulmier de Gonneville (1504) in Spain,In the early 20th century, Lawrence Hargrave argued from archaeological evidence that Spain had established a colony in Botany Bay in the 16th century. India, and even Phoenicia.This claim was made by Allan Robinson in his self-published In Australia, Treasure is not for the Finder (1980); for discussion, see
The Janszoon voyage of 1605–06 led to the first undisputed sighting of Australia by a European was made on 26 February 1606. Dutch vessel Duyfken, captained by Janszoon, followed the coast of New Guinea, missed Torres Strait, and explored perhaps of western side of Cape York, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, believing the land was still part of New Guinea. The Dutch made one landing, but were promptly attacked by Aboriginals and subsequently abandoned further exploration.Day, Alan (2003). The A to Z of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia, p. 115Seddon, George (2005). The Old Country: Australian Landscapes, Plants and People, p. 28McHugh, Evan (2006). 1606: An Epic Adventure, p. 16Grimbly, Shona (2001). Atlas of Exploration, p. 107–08
The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, and made landfall on 26 February at the Pennefather River near the modern town of Weipa on Cape York. p. 233. The Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent "New Holland" during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement.
First charting of Manhattan, New York (1609) The area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Indians. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of the king Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, that the area was mapped.
Hudson Valley (1609) At the time of the arrival of the first Europeans in the 17th century, the Hudson Valley was inhabited primarily by the Algonquian-speaking Mahican and Munsee Native American people, known collectively as River Indians. The first Dutch settlement was in the 1610s at Fort Nassau, a trading post (factorij) south of modern-day Albany, that traded European goods for beaver pelts. Fort Nassau was later replaced by Fort Orange. During the rest of the 17th century, the Hudson Valley formed the heart of the New Netherland colony operations, with the New Amsterdam settlement on Manhattan serving as a post for supplies and defense of the upriver operations.
Brouwer Route (1610–1611) The Brouwer Route was a route for sailing from the Cape of Good Hope to Java. The Route took ships south from the Cape into the Roaring Forties, then east across the Indian Ocean, before turning northwest for Java. Thus it took advantage of the strong westerly winds for which the Roaring Forties are named, greatly increasing travel speed. It was devised by Dutch sea explorer Hendrik Brouwer in 1611, and found to halve the duration of the journey from Europe to Java, compared to the previous Arab and Portuguese monsoon route, which involved following the coast of East Africa northwards, sailing through the Mozambique Channel and then across the Indian Ocean, sometimes via India. The Brouwer Route played a major role in the discovery of the west coast of Australia.
Jan Mayen Island (1614) After unconfirmed reports of Dutch discovery as early as 1611, the island was named after Dutchman Jan Jacobszoon May van Schellinkhout, who visited the island in July 1614. As locations of these islands were kept secret by the whalers, Jan Mayen got its current name only in 1620.Mills, William J. (2003). Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1, p. 332–33
Hell Gate, Long Island Sound, Connecticut River and Fisher's Island (1614)
The name "Hell Gate" is a corruption of Dutch phrase Hellegat, which could mean either "hell's hole" or "bright gate/passage". It was originally applied to the entirety of the East River. The strait was described in the journals of Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, who is the first European known to have navigated the strait, during his 1614 voyage aboard the Onrust.
The first European to record the existence of Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River was Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, who entered it from the East River in 1614.
Fishers Island was called Munnawtawkit by the Native American Pequot nation. Block named it Visher's Island in 1614, after one of his companions. For the next 25 years, it remained a wilderness, visited occasionally by Dutch traders.
Staten Island (Argentina), Cape Horn, Tonga, Hoorn Islands (1615) On 25 December 1615, Dutch explorers Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten aboard the Eendracht, discovered Staten Island, close to Cape Horn.
On 29 January 1616, they sighted land they called Cape Horn, after the city of Hoorn. Aboard the Eendracht was the crew of the recently wrecked ship called Hoorn.
They discovered Tonga on 21 April 1616 and the Hoorn Islands on 28 April 1616.
They discovered New Ireland around May–July 1616.
They discovered the Schouten Islands (also known as Biak Islands or Geelvink Islands) on 24 July 1616.
The Schouten Islands (also known as Eastern Schouten Islands or Le Maire Islands) of Papua New Guinea, were named after Schouten, who visited them in 1616.
Dirk Hartog Island (1616)
Hendrik Brouwer's discovery that sailing east from the Cape of Good Hope until land was sighted, and then sailing north along the west coast of Australia was a much quicker route than around the coast of the Indian Ocean made Dutch landfalls on the west coast inevitable. The first such landfall was in 1616, when Dirk Hartog landed at Cape Inscription on what is now known as Dirk Hartog Island, off the coast of Western Australia, and left behind an inscription on a pewter plate. In 1697 the Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh landed on the island and discovered Hartog's plate. He replaced it with one of his own, which included a copy of Hartog's inscription, and took the original plate home to Amsterdam, where it is still kept in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
Houtman Abrolhos (1619) The first sighting of the Houtman Abrolhos by Europeans was by Dutch VOC ships Dordrecht and Amsterdam in 1619, three years after Hartog made the first authenticated sighting of what is now Western Australia, 13 years after the first authenticated voyage to Australia, that of the Duyfke in 1606. Discovery of the islands was credited to Frederick de Houtman, Captain-General of the Dordrecht, as it was Houtman who later wrote of the discovery in a letter to Company directors.
Carstensz Glacier, Carstensz Pyramid/Puncak Jaya (1623) The first person to spot Carstensz Pyramid (or Puncak Jaya) is reported to be the Dutch navigator and explorer Jan Carstensz in 1623, for whom the mountain is named. Carstensz was the first non-native to sight the glaciers on the peak of the mountain on a rare clear day. The sighting went unverified for over two centuries, and Carstensz was ridiculed in Europe when he said he had seen snow and glaciers near the equator. The snowfield of Puncak Jaya was reached as early as 1909 by a Dutch explorer, Hendrik Albert Lorentz with six of his indigenous Dayak Kenyah porters recruited from the Apo Kayan in Borneo. The now highest Carstensz Pyramid summit was not climbed until 1962, by an expedition led by the Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer with three other expedition members – the New Zealand mountaineer Philip Temple, the Australian rock climber Russell Kippax, and the Dutch patrol officer Albertus (Bert) Huizenga.
Gulf of Carpentaria (Northern Australia) (1623)