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.

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E.

Of the chart of which this is a small portion, a complete reproduction will be found in Remarkable Maps, II, 8.  In 1630, accordingly, the discovery of Eendrachtsland was known at Nuremberg.

[Map No. 6.  Kaart van het Zuidland van (Alap of the Southland by) JOANNES KEPPLER en PHILIPPUS ECKEBRECHT, 1630]

* * * * *

VIII.

(1618).  VOYAGE OF THE SHIP ZEEWOLF, FROM THE NETHERLANDS TO INDIA, UNDER THE COMMAND OF SUPERCARGO PIETER DIRKSZOON AND SKIPPER HAEVIK CLAESZOON VAN HILLEGOM.—­FURTHER DISCOVERY OF THE WEST-COAST OF AUSTRALIA.

Letter of Supercargo Pieter Dirkszoon to the Managers of the E.I.C. at Amsterdam, dated June 24, 1618.

A.

Worshipful Wise Provident Very Discreet Gentlemen.

By the ships T’Wapen van Zeelandt, den Eenhoorn and Enckhuyzen (which with full cargoes arrived at the Cape de bone Esperance from these parts of India) I have on the 22nd of March last [1618] briefly advised Your Worships of our safe arrival there...[*]

[* The ship had sailed from the Netherlands in December 1617.]

* * *

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Now with this ship den Witten Beer Your Worships may be pleased to receive news of the subsequent successful progress of our voyage to this part of India, viz. that on the 24th of the said month we sailed from the Taeffelbaey [Table Bay]...in the ship Seewolf for Bantam (pursuant to Your Worships’ orders); in such fashion that by God’s grace we soon got south as far as 37, 38 and 39 degrees, after which we held our course due east for a thousand miles before turning it northward; so that on the 21st of May following we made the land in Cleyn Java about 6 or 8 miles east of the island of Bali; after which, passing between Bali and Cleyn Java, we came to anchor before our factory of Japara on the second day of June...

Having on the 11th of May reached 21 deg. 15’ S. Latitude, we saw and discovered...land about 5 or 6 miles to windward east of us, which in consequence we were unable to touch at.  We observed it to be a level, low-lying shore of great length, and looking out from the top-mast we saw on both ends of it, to north as well as to southward, still other land which showed high and mountainous.  But as the land bore eastward from us, and we could not have got higher without considerable inconvenience, we do not know whether it forms an unbroken coast-line, or is made up of separate islands.  In the former case it might well be a mainland coast, for it extended to a very great length.  But only the Lord knows the real state of affairs.  At all events it would seem never to have been made or discovered by any one before us, as we have never heard of such discovery [*], and the chart shows nothing but open ocean at this place.  According to our skipper’s estimation in his chart the Strait of Sunda was then

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