The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 213 pages of information about The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765.

The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 213 pages of information about The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765.

Always continuing
Their High Mightinesses’ etc. obedient and affectionate servant
J. CARSTENSZOON.

[* Carpentier, erased in the original MS. Cf. my Life of Tasman, p. 100, note 4.]

{Page 46}

D.

CHART MADE BY THE UPPER STEERSMAN AREND MARTENSZ.  DE LEEUW, WHO TOOK PART
IN THE EXPEDITION [*].

[* The original of this chart, of which a full-sized reproduction is given in Remarkable Maps, II, 5, is preserved in the State Archives at the Hague.  There would seem to have been still more charts of this voyage:  see VAN DIJK Carpentaria, p. 37, note 3.]

[Map No. 7.  Kaart van den opperstuurman AREND MARTENSZ.  DE LEEUW, der Zuidwestkust van Nieuw Guinea en der Oostkust van de Golf van Carpentaria (Chart, made by the upper steersman Arend Martensz.  De Leeuw, of the Southwest coast of New-Guinea and the East-coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria)]

{Page 47}

2.

VOYAGE OF THE ARNHEM ALONE UNDER THE COMMAND OF VAN COOLSTEERDT, AFTER
THE SHIP PERA AND HERSELF HAD PARTED COMPANY ON THE 27TH OF APRIL, 1623.

A.

Letter from the Governor of Banda to the Governor-General Pieter De Carpentier, May 16, 1623.

Noble, Worshipful, Wise, Valiant and very Discreet Sir,

* * *

The day before yesterday...we sighted...a ship.  We forthwith presumed it to be Mr. Carstens, or perhaps one of the Yachts Pera or Arnehem...The ship turned out to be the Arnehem, which during the preceding night had lost her rudder...

(They) have not done much worth mentioning, for at the place where the chart [*] they had with them, led them to expect an open passage, they did not find any such, so that they could not get to the island they wished to reach...[**]

[* It is highly probable that this is another allusion to a chart of the voyage of Willem Janszoon with the Duifken in 1605-1606, because other documents concerning this expedition of the Arnhem and the Pera put it beyond a doubt that they had on board a chart of the voyage of the ship Duifken.  In that case the passage in the text proves that Willem Janszoon already suspected the existence of Torres Strait, since the “open passage” can hardly refer to anything else.]

[** The remaining part of the letter refers to the time when the two ships were still together, and contains nothing new.]

Done in the Castle of Nassauw at Nera in the island of Banda, this 16th of May, A.D. 1623. (signed) ISACK De BRUNE.

B.

Letter from the Governor-General Antonio Van Diemen to “Commander” Gerrit Thomaszoon Pool, February 19, 1636.

Worshipful, Provident, very Discreet Sir,

* * *

With the present we also [*] send you a chart of the coasts made A.D. 1623 by the Yachts Pera and Arnhem, together with a small map of the South-land as surveyed by divers ships coming from the Netherlands, both of which may be of use to Your Worship [**]...

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The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.