Janszoon, Willem

(vĭ´ləm yän´sōn) fl. late 16th–early 17th cent., Dutch navigator and colonial governor; his name also appears was Jansz or Janssen. Janszoon served (1603–11, 1612–16, 1618–28) in the Dutch East Indies. Sailing on the Duyfken [dovekin] from Bantam, Java, in 1605, he sailed along the S New Guinea coast and crossed over to what is now the Carpentaria Bay coast of Queensland, becoming (1606) the first European explorer known for certain to have sighted and landed in Australia (though he believed it to be part of New Guinea). He was the colonial governor of Ft. Henricus, Solor (1612–16), and of Banda (1623–27) and rose to the rank of admiral.