A Dutch chart of the Indian Ocean with Australia

A fine 17th century chart of the Indian Ocean, depicting from the Cape of Good Hope to the 'Island' of Korea and Japan, as well as the coastline of Australia (with Tasmania far off shore). The map was first published in the sea atlas that formed Volume 5 of his 'Atlas Novus', issued 1650. The original plate omitted Tasman's discoveries in Australia, due to the secrecy of the Dutch East India Company. Only in the 1680s was the north coast of Australia and Tasmania added to the plate. Even then the area between Cape York Peninsula and New Guinea were left vague, expressing the lake of certainty that was not corrected for another century.