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INDEX
WHO DID DISCOVER AUSTRALIA?
COLONIAL EXPLORATION
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Dutch Exploration: Dutch names on the Australian Coastline Gerritt Frederikszoon de Witt De Witt was a member of the Council of Batavia who had sponsored the expeditions of Dutch navigator Abel Tasman. The Instructions to Tasman regarding his voyage to New Holland given by the Governor-General and Council of the Dutch East India Company were drawn up at Batavia on 13th January, 1644, and were signed by Anthony Van Diemen, Cornelis Van Der Lijn (Director-General), Joan Maetsuijker, Justis Schouten ("Councillor-Extraordinary to the present assembly"), Salomon Sweers, and Pieter Metschagh (Secretary). In 1628, De Witt was master of the Dutch East India Company's vessel, Vyanen, which sailed along and mapped over 300 kms of the coastline of New Holland in the vicinity of present day Port Hedland, WA, in 1628. Dutch cartographers named this section of coastline De Witts Land, after him. The name is no longer used. De Witt Island, Tasmania, was named by Abel Tasman, 25th November 1642. Salomon Sweers Sweers was a member of the Council of Batavia who had sponsored the expeditions of Dutch navigator Abel Tasman. The Instructions to Tasman regarding his voyage to New Holland given by the Governor-General and Council of the Dutch East India Company were drawn up at Batavia on 13th January, 1644, and were signed by Anthony Van Diemen, Cornelis Van Der Lijn (Director-General), Joan Maetsuijker, Justis Schouten ("Councillor-Extraordinary to the present assembly"), Salomon Sweers, and Pieter Metschagh (Secretary). Sweers Isand, Tasmania, was named by Abel Tasman 25th November 1642. Sweers Island, NT, was first sighted by Abel Tasman in 1644, who thought the island was a headland and named the channel between Sweers and Bentinck as Maet Suykers River after Joan Maatsuyker (see separate entry). When Flinders arrived in 1802, he found that no river existed so he named the island "Sweers Island". Joan Maetsuijker  Maetsuijker was a member of the Council of Batavia who had sponsored the expeditions of Dutch navigator Abel Tasman. The Instructions to Tasman regarding his voyage to New Holland given by the Governor-General and Council of the Dutch East India Company were drawn up at Batavia on 13th January, 1644, and were signed by Anthony Van Diemen, Cornelis Van Der Lijn (Director-General), Joan Maetsuijker, Justis Schouten ("Councillor-Extraordinary to the present assembly"), Salomon Sweers, and Pieter Metschagh (Secretary).
Maatsuyker was born in Amsterdam on 14th October 1606. He became a servant of the VOC in 1636 and later a secretary of the Council of justice in Batavia. In 1641 he became an extraordinary advisor of the Dutch-Indies. In this function he distinguished himself, by order of governor general Van Diemen, by adapting the existing edict, proclamations and decree's from the Heeren XVII and governor-general into a code book, the Statutes of Batavia, on which the judicial system in the Dutch-Indies was based until 1848. From 1646 till 1650, Maetsuycker was governor of Ceylon. He was governor-general of the Dutch East Indies for 25 years, from 1653 to his death in Batavia (Jakarta) on 24th January, 1678. During his regime the power of the VOC was adequately extended on Java, Sumatra and Celebes. Maatsuyker Island, Tasmania, was named by Abel Tasman 25th November 1642. Prince Frederick Hendrick
Frederick Hendrick ruled over Holland in the "Golden century". The republic was in the height of its power and suffered little if not from religious or political conflicts. Culture flourished with painters like Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Jan Steen. Amsterdam was the financial centre of Europe. Frederick Hendrick is mainly known as the city-forcer, the name palace-builder would however not be unsuitable either. He lived like a king and had several palaces built; besides "House Honselaarsdijk" he build "Paleis Noordeinde", "Nieuwburch" in Rijswijk and started the construction of "Huis ten Bosch" which was finished by Amalia of Solms in his honour. He also showed lots of interest in the castles in Breda, Buren, Dieren en IJsselstein. His love for culture he must have inherited from his mother Louise de Coligny. "House Honselaarsdijk" became also know as "little Versailles" after the palace in Versailles built by Louis XIV, de Sun King. Prince Frederick Hendrick and his cousin Duke Ernst Casimir van Nassau started in 1626 an offensive against the Spanish. Ernst Casimir's branch of the family would later inherit the title prince of Orange due to Willem III dying without descendants. In 1629 Frederick Hendrick confiscated castle Maurick in Vught as his headquarters. He drives the Spanish out of the city of "'s Hertogenbosch" and is therefore called the 'de stedendwinger' (city forcer). Apart from 's Hertogenbosch, he also took; Sas van Gent, Venlo, Roermond, Maastricht, en Rijnberk. Finally in1637 he conquered Breda in the last Spanish bulwark in the southern Netherlands. An attempt to take over Antwerp in that same year failed. The borders of the future Netherlands were slowly beginning to show.. Frederick Hendrick realised the importance of connections with other powers if he was to win the war against Spain. As abled diplomat he organized financial support from France and closed a pact with the English by arranged marriage of his son William II to Mary Steward, daughter of the English King Charles I. At long last, in 1646, Frederick Hendrick started peace negotiations with Spain. This would result in 1948 (after his death) in the "peace of Munster". This madean end to the 80 year war. Frederick Hendrick died in the Hague in 1647. The title, Prince of Orange,passed on to his son William II. It was at Blackmans Bay that Abel Tasman sent crew members ashore to plant a Dutch flag and claim Van Diemen's Land for Holland in 1642. Tasman named it Frederick Henry Bay, 6.12.1642, however, in 1773 when he visited the area, Furneaux mistook Frederick Henry Bay for the place where Tasman had landed. Furneaux's charts were used to prepare the Admiralty charts of today, which is why the name still applies to the wrong bay. The name honours Dutch Prince Regent Frederick Henrijk. Abel Tasman
Tasman was born in 1603 in Lutjegast, the Netherlands, a village in the province of Groningen. He was first heard of at the end of 1631 when, as a widower living at Amsterdam, he married Jannetjie Tjaers. He was shortly afterwards in the service of the Dutch East India Company and by 1634 was mate of a ship trading from Batavia (now Jakarta) to the Moluccas. In July of that year he was appointed master of a small ship, the Mocha. He visited Holland in 1637 and returned to Batavia in October 1638, taking his wife with him. In 1639 Tasman was sent as second in command of an exploring expedition in the north Pacific. His fleet included the ships Heemskerck and Zeehaen. After many hardships Formosa (now Taiwan) was reached in November, 40 out of the crew of 90 having died. Other voyages followed, to Japan in 1640 and 1641 and to Palembang in the south of Sumatra in 1642, where he made a friendly trading treaty with the Sultan. In August 1642 Tasman was sent in command of an expedition for the discovery of the "Unknown Southland", which was believed to be in the south Pacific but which had not been seen by Europeans. Strange as it may seem to us today, Tasman sailed first to Mauritius. The reason for this was that his ships were sailing ships and the best route from one place to another was not always the direct route; of more importance was the direction of the wind. Tasman had some knowledge of the prevailing winds and so he chose Mauritius as a turning point and from there a course was set towards what was presumed to be the southern coast of Australia. (At least part of the western shore of the continent was already known to the Dutch, but the shape of the southern coast was unknown). On 24 November 1642 he sighted the west coast of Tasmania near Macquarie Harbour. He named the land Van Diemen's Land after Anthony Van Diemen the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Proceeding south he skirted the southern end of Tasmania and turned north-east until he was off Cape Frederick Hendrick on the Forestier Peninsula. An attempt at landing was made but the sea was too rough; however, the carpenter swam through the surf, and, planting a flag, Tasman took formal possession of the land on 3 December 1642. Tasman had intended to proceed in a northerly direction but as the wind was unfavourable he steered east. On 13 December they sighted land on the north-west coast of the South Island, New Zealand. After some exploration he sailed further east, and nine days later was the first European known to sight New Zealand, which he named Staten Landt on the assumption that it was connected to an island (Staten Island, Argentina) at the south of the tip of South America. Proceeding north and then east one of his boats was attacked by some MÇori in war canoes, and four of his men were killed. It has recently been suggested that some of Tasman's sailors briefly landed here on 18 December 1642. Tasman named it Murderers' Bay (now known as Golden Bay) and sailed north, but mistook Cook Strait for a bight (naming it Zeehaen's Bight). Two names that he bestowed on New Zealand landmarks still endure: Cape Maria van Diemen and Three Kings Islands (Cabo Pieter Boreels is now known as Cape Egmont). En route back to Batavia, he came across the Tongan archipelago on January 21, 1643. While passing the Fiji Islands Tasman's ships came close to being wrecked in one of its reef-lined bays. Eventually turned north-west to New Guinea, and arrived at Batavia on 15 June 1643. With three ships on his second voyage (Limmen, Zeemeeuw and the tender Braek) in 1644, he followed the south coast of New Guinea eastward. He missed the Torres Strait between New Guinea and Australia, and continued his voyage along the Australian coast. He mapped the north coast of Australia making observations on the land and its people. From the point of view of the VOC, Tasman's explorations were a disappointment: he had neither found a promising area for trade nor a useful new shipping route. For over a century, until the era of James Cook, Tasmania and New Zealand were not visited by Europeans - mainland Australia was visited, but usually only by accident. On 2 November 1644 he was appointed a member of the council of justice at Batavia. He went to Sumatra in 1646, and in August 1647 to Siam (now Thailand) with letters from the company to the King. In May 1648 he was in charge of an expedition sent to Manila to try to intercept and loot the Spanish silver ships coming from America, but he had no success and returned to Batavia in January 1649. In November 1649 he was charged and found guilty of having in the previous year hanged one of his men without trial, was suspended from his office of commander, fined, and made to pay compensation to the relatives of the sailor. On 5 January 1651 he was formally reinstated in his rank and spent his remaining years at Batavia. He was in good circumstances, being one of the larger landowners in the town. He died at Batavia in October 1659 and was survived by his second wife and a daughter by his first wife. His discoveries were most important but led to nothing for more than 100 years. Tasman Island / Tasman Head / Tasman Peninsula were named after Tasman by Matthew Flinders, 9th December 1798. Anthony Van Diemen
Anthony van Diemen (Culemborg, 1593&endash; Batavia, 19 April 1645), or Antonius, was born in Culemborg in the Netherlands, the son of Bartholomeus van Diemen and Elisabeth Hoevenaar. In 1616 he became a merchant and moved to Amsterdam. After a year he became a servant of the Dutch East India Company and sailed to Batavia (Jakarta), capital of the Dutch East Indies. Governor Jan Pieterszoon Coen found van Diemen to be a talented official and by 1626 he was Director-General of Commerce and member of the Council for the Indies. In 1630 he married Maria van Aelst. A year later he returned to the Netherlands as Admiral on the ship Deventer. In 1632 he returned to Batavia and in 1635 he was appointed Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, his appointment taking effect on 1 January 1636. Van Diemen's nine years as Governor-General were successful and important for both the colony and the commercial success of the East India Company. He devoted much of his energy to expanding the power of the company throughout Asia. Under his rule Dutch power was established in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Van Diemen is best remembered for his efforts to foster exploration of the land to the south, Australia. He appointed Frans Visscher to draw up a plan for new discoveries. Visscher mapped out three different routes and van Diemen decided in August 1642 to send Abel Janszoon Tasman in search of the Great South Land. Anthony van Diemen died in April 1645 in Batavia, Dutch East Indies. The company granted his wife a large pension and she retired to the Netherlands. Her name is perpetuated in the name of the northernmost tip of New Zealand, Cape Maria van Diemen, named by Tasman in 1643, and by Maria Island off the east coast of Tasmania. In November 1642 Tasman sighted land (the west coast of the island of Tasmania), and followed the southern coastline around to the east coast. Tasman sent a party ashore at Blackman Bay, on the Tasman Peninsula, who planted a flag and encountered a few of the native inhabitants. Believing he had found a large territory, Tasman named it Van Diemen's Land in honour of his patron. This name was retained when British settlement began there in 1803. It became a byword for horror in England because of the severity of its convict settlements such as Port Arthur and Macquarie Harbour. The name of Van Diemen's Land had acquired such odium that when it became a self-governing colony in 1855, one of the first acts of the new legislature was to change its name to Tasmania. But the old name lingered for many years&emdash;Tasmanians were referred to as Vandemonians until the turn of the century. Van Diemen Inlet, NT, was named by Abel Tasman, April 1644. Van Diemen Gulf, NT, was named by Abel Tasman, April 1644. Cape Van Diemen, NT, was named by Abel Tasman, Aprl 1644. Maria Island, Tasmania, was named by Abel Tasman, December 1642. I was named after Maria Van Aelst, the wife of Anthony Van Diemen. For many years it was asserted that Tasman had fallen in love with a daughter of Antonio Van Diemen, after whom he named the island, but Van Diemen had no daughters. Maria Island, NT, was named by Abel Tasman, April 1644. Frans Jacobszoon Visscher Visscher was Abel Tasman's pilot-major during Tasman's 1642 voyage to Tasmania. On his return, Visscher's journal of the voyage. Antonio Van Diemen then gave him the task of preparing another exploratory voyage to New Holland, with specific instruction to search for land to the south or east of the coastal already known (the west coast). Visscher mapped out three different routes and van Diemen decided on 1st August 1642 to send Abel Tasman on the expedition. Visscher Island was named by Abel Tasman, 12.1642. Tasman may have named this island after his pilot-major, Frans Jacobszoon Visscher. According to Tasman's journal entry of 5th April 1643, Tasman named an island off New Guinea with the same name because "inshore of this island we saw some prows lying, which we supposed to be engaged in fishing, or which reason we have to this island given the name of Visschers island". Visscher is Dutch for 'fisher', ie. one who catches fish. Either suggestion for the naming of the Tasmanian Visscher Island is possible. Cornelis Van Der Lyn
Van Der Lijn (1608-1679) was governor-general of Dutch East Indies from 1646 until 1650 and mayor of Alkmaar 1668-1678. In 1637 or 1639 (about this differ the sources), he had become a Councellor of the Duth East Indies Company. A year later he became president of the ship's court. In 1641, he became director-general of the Council of Dutch East Indies. During the years of Van Der Lijn's governorship, corruption within the company increased. The administrators in the Netherlands dismissed him on 7th October 1650, Carel Reyniersz was appointed as its successor. It was customary for a man of his standing to make his homecoming as a commander of the fleet. He was denied this honour after the free citizens of Batavia wrote a letter of protest to the Company which accused Van Der Lijn of corrupt financial dealings with the Chinese. Freycinet Peninsula was named Van Der Lijn's Islandt by Abel Tasman, December 1642, Tasman believing it to be an island. Vanderlin Isld and Cape Vanderlin were named by Abel Tasman, April 1644. Justus Schouten Schouten was a member of the Council of Batavia who had sponsored the expeditions of Dutch navigator Abel Tasman. The Instructions to Tasman regarding his voyage to New Holland given by the Governor-General and Council of the Dutch East India Company were drawn up at Batavia on 13th January, 1644, and were signed by Anthony Van Diemen, Cornelis Van Der Lijn (Director-General), Joan Maetsuijker, Justis Schouten ("Councillor-Extraordinary to the present assembly"), Salomon Sweers, and Pieter Metschagh (Secretary). Justus Schouten had been a loyal servant of the company for decades, having first sailed from Holland to the Siamese capital of Ayudhya in 1624 aboard the Dutch yacht Zeelandt. The Dutch had been in revolt against their Spanish rulers. The Dutch East India Company, barely 20 years old, was trying to wrest control of the Asia trade from Spain and her Portuguese ally. Schouten rose to chief merchant and directed one of the company's most important silk factories. When a new king ascended the throne of Siam, the factory was closed down. He then transferred his activities to Japan where he established a silk factory there. Schouten Isld / Schouten Passage were named by Abel Tasman, December 1642. Tasman. Herman van Speult Herman Van Speult was the Dutch East India Company's Governor of Amboyna (1618-25), a small Island in the East Indies. A community of eighteen English traders lived on the island, and had done harmoniously for some years. In 1623, driven on by what we can only assume was hatred and paranoia, Van Speult arrested all eighteen Englishmen on the island and had them tortured until they confessed to plotting to overthrow the Dutch rule. After weeks of hideous tortures involving hot pokers and water, the Englishmen all confessed to anything and everything they were accused of. Subsequently they were all sentenced to death, and sixteen were then beheaded. Two men were spared so that they could transfer the English communities business dealings in rare spices over to the Dutch. They were then allowed to leave the island, and it is through these two surviving men, named Beomont and Collins, that accounts of the atrocity reached England and the rest of the world. The aftermath of these events nearly brought the England and Holland to war. It was as a result of this incident that Van Speult sent Jan Cartstensz and fellow explorer Willem Joster Van Colster with the ships Arnhem and Pera to verify the findings of previously unfavourable reports of an earlier voyage by Willem Janzoon in 1606, and to search for gold on the south of New Guinea, in the hope of finding it before the British. It was on this voyage that Cartstensz explored and maps parts of the northern coast of Australia. Van Spoult Point, NT, was named by Jan Cartstensz, 12th April 1623. Van Speult River, NT, was named by Jan Cartstensz, in 1623 Pieter de Carpentier
On November 12, 1627 Pieter de Carpentier sailed from the East Indies as Head of the Fleet. He arrived in Holland on June 3, 1628, with five richly-laden merchant ships, and this, combined with the fact that the Government had recently succeeded in releasing three ships from an embargo laid upon them by the English a year previously, led the authorities to determine to send another fleet of eleven ships to the East, with which General Jacob Specks was to sail. Two ships and a yacht being soon ready to sail, the senate sent them to Texel so as to lose no time. These vessels were the Batavia (under Francisco Pelsaert) the Dordrecht (under Isaac van Swaenswyck) and the Assendelft (under Cornelis Vlack). They left Texel for their destination on 28 October 1628. De Carpentier was made Head of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in October 1629. His maternal uncle, Louis Delbeecque, had been one of the initiators of the VOC. Pieter de Carpentier married Maria Ravevelt in Middelburg on 2 March 1630. She died in September 1641 and was buried on in the Westerchurch in Amsterdam. De Carpentier died in Amsterdam on 5 September 1659, and was also buried in the Westerchurch. They had seven children. The Gulf of Carpentaria, NT/Qld, was named by Abel Tasman, April 1644. Pieter Nuyts Born in Middelburg, Holland in 1598, Pieter Nuyts was raised in the textile business of his parents Lauwerijs and Elisabeth Waelrans and the ships trading in the Far East and Asia. He was enrolled at the University of Leiden on 14 December 1613. During his studies he lived at the house of Professor Thomas van Erpen, a specialist and lover of anything Arabian. After completing University Nuyts was well versed in the classics, bible and law. He returned to Middelburg and his father's business. Nuyts married Cornelia Jansdochter Jacot on 26 April 1620. He wanted to see the world and particularly the Far East, so he secured a position with the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost Indische Compagnie, VOC). Nuyts decided to move to Batavia, the main centre of activity of the company. He and his son Laurens left Vlissingen on 't Gulden Seepaert, fitted out by the Middelburg Chamber of the VOC and commanded by Francois Thijssen on 22nd May 1626. His wife, who was pregnant and their son Pieter, would follow at a later date. The ship carried 158 passengers, 56 soldiers and six women and was part of a fleet of nine under the command of Admiral Wybrant Janszoon Schram. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, 't Gulden Seepaert sailed into history when it was carried too far south by the winds of the Southern Ocean. It touched the South Coast of Terra Australis Incognita, the Great Unknown South Land, on 26 January 1627 in the neighbourhood of Cape Leeuwin. The ship now turned eastward according to instructions given by Jan Pieterszoon Coen, Governor General of the Dutch East Indies, in 1622. He had wanted a 'thorough investigation of the South Land with a view to ascertain as much of the situation and nature of these regions as God Almighty shall vouchsafe to allow'. Sailing along the southern coast from Cape Leeuwin for more than 1500 kilometres, the Dutch mapped and named 't Land van Pieter Nuyts and the islands of St. Francis and St. Pieter now known as Nuyts Archipelago. This encounter resulted in the first definite map of any part of the Southern Coast and the first knowledge of South Australia. Later French and English explorers praised the accuracy of the Dutch map. It was on the basis of these maps drawn by Nuyts that Jonathan Swift, when writing Gulliver's Travels, located the land of the Houyhnhnms almost exactly at the present site of Albany in Western Australia. Swift had Gulliver land on the coastline, eat oysters and are chased by Aborigines. He could not have known that George Vancouver, some 65 years later, would enter one of the bays of King George Sound and name it Oyster Harbour because of the abundance of oysters he found in the area. It stands to reason that perhaps the Gulden Zeepaerdt had also visited King George Sound 65 years before Vancouver and that Gulliver 's character were based Nuyts' experiences when he visited King George Sound. After eleven months at sea, Nuyts arrived in Batavia on 10th April 1627. Within three weeks, Nuyts was appointed Ambassador to Japan. He left Batavia on 12th May 1627 in command of five ships, 240 sailors and 60 soldiers to head a special mission to restore and improve relations between the VOC and Japan. After a month of complicated negotiations and his own ignorance of Japanese customs, he had to admit defeat and returned to Formosa. The mission had been a total failure. On 28th June 1627, Nuyts became Governor of Taiwan. Nuyts proved to be a disaster as a governor. He alienated most of the locals, his own staff, and his superiors in Batavia who had decided to recall him as early as March 1629. Nuyts arrived back in Batavia on 11th October 1629 where he was heavily fined. After several inquiries he was suspended and arrested on 9th May 1630. After being handed over to the Japanese as a hostage, Nuyts was eventually released, and returned to Holland in July 1638. Nuyts became a large land owner around the city of Hulst. Eventually he became a tax collector of Hulster Ambacht and Hulst. Once again he was involved in many struggles, fights and financial mismanagement. After his death on 11th December 1655, it was found that he had collected far more tax than was shown in the Council's books. It was eventually repaid by his son Pieter. Nuyts' Reef, Cape Nuyts and the Nuyts Archipelago were named by Matthew Flinders, 8th February 1802, in recognition of Nuts' visit to the area in 1627. The Western Australian Christmas tree was later named Nuytsia floribunda.
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Frederick Hendrick van Orange-Nassau was born in Delft in 1584 as only son of the marriage between William of Orange and Louise de Coligny, his fourth wife. In 1625 he succeeded his half-brother Prince Maurits, as stadtholder. Maurits also handed over the command of the armies to Frederick Hendrick and asked him to get married and to secure the line of the dynasty.. On the 4th of April 1625 Frederick Hendrick married Amalia von Solms-Braunfelt, she was a lady of the court of Frederick of Palts, the 'Winter king' of Bohemia. Out of this marriage five children were born: the later Stadtholder William II in 1626 followed by four daughters.
Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603 - October 10, 1659), was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant. He is best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) to the Southland. His was the first known European expedition to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and New Zealand and to sight the Fiji islands, which he did in 1643. Tasman, his navigator Visscher, and his Merchant Gilsemans also mapped substantial portions of Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands.
Van Dieman was a member of the Council of Batavia who had sponsored the expeditions of Dutch navigator Abel Tasman. The Instructions to Tasman regarding his voyage to New Holland given by the Governor-General and Council of the Dutch East India Company were drawn up at Batavia on 13th January, 1644, and were signed by Anthony Van Diemen, Cornelis Van Der Lijn (Director-General), Joan Maetsuijker, Justis Schouten ("Councillor-Extraordinary to the present assembly"), Salomon Sweers, and Pieter Metschagh (Secretary). 
Pieter de Carpentier (1586 or 88 &endash; 5 September 1659) was a Dutch, or Flemish, administrator of the Dutch East Indies, and who served as Governor-General there from 1623&endash;1627. The Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia is named after him. de Carpentier was born in Antwerp in 1586 or 1588, shortly after the formation of the newly-independent Dutch Republic (Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, or United Provinces). He studied philosophy in Leiden, from 1603. In 1616 he sailed on board the sailing vessel De Getrouwheid to Indonesia. There he had a number of functions, including Director-General of the Trade, Member to the Council of the Indies, and member of the Council of Defence. From February 1, 1623 to September 30, 1627 he was the fifth Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. He participated in the conquest of Jakarta and helped to build the town of Batavia. He did much for the town, including setting up a school, a Town Hall, and the first Orphanage Home. He also designed the structure of the churches in the town.