It is recorded that both of them met the "Aboriginals". In the year 1642, Abel Tasman, after whom Tasmania is named, sailed to the island. Captain James Cook landed at the Botany Bay in the year 1770 and without any opposition proclaimed the New South Wales as the land of Britain. European colonization started with the landing of the Arther Philip on 26 th of January 1788. The day is still observed as the Australia Day. Britain, however, was interested in sending off the convicts unable to fit in the British prisons.