cruel, savage and barbarous natives, who surprised and murdered nine of our men, partly owing to their own negligence; according to the report we have received of the said coast, there would be nothing in particular to be got there; what winds, currents, shores, rivers, bights, capes, forelands and other features of the coast have been further met with, surveyed and explored, Your Worships may gather from the enclosed journal and minutes, to which we would beg leave to refer you for further particulars...

B.

Journal kept by JAN CARSTENSZ [*] on his voyage to Nova Guinea...

[* CARSTENSZ got the Instructions originally drawn up for the ships Haringh and Hazewind. (See VAN DIJK, Carpentaria, pp. 9-10).]

A.D. 1623.

In the name of God Amen.

JANUARY.

On Saturday the 21st we weighed anchor before Amboyna and set sail from there, together with the yacht Aernem...On Saturday the 28th...about 3 o’clock in the afternoon...we anchored off the east side of the island of Quey.

The following night...we made for Aro on an East-by-North and Eastern course.

On Saturday the 29th in the evening we dropped anchor near the northern island of Aro.

FEBRUARY.

On the 6th...the wind being south-east by east, we set sail again for the island which in some charts [*] is called Ceram, and in others de Papues; course held north-east by north; in the evening N.N.E.; about midnight it fell a calm; sailed 6 miles.

[* Cf. Remarkable Maps II, 2, II, 3.  Under date of March 31 the present journal once more refers to this mistake in the older charts.]

{Page 23}

In the morning of the 6th the wind was N.E. with a tolerable breeze, course held N.N.W., we saw high land ahead both on the lee and the weather bow—­at noon latitude 4 deg. 57’, sailed three miles on the said course; for the rest of the day we had a calm, towards the evening the wind went round to S.E., course held N.E. by E., sailed 4 miles.

On Sunday the 8th the wind was S. by W., with rain; course held N.E. by E., at noon latitude 4 deg. 27, sailed 4 miles on the said course.  We then went on a N.E. course, with a variable wind, which at last fell to a calm; towards evening after sunset the wind turned to S. by E., we sailed with the fore- and mizen-sails only on an E. course, sailed three miles to E.S.O. [sic] In the night the two yachts ran foul of each other in tacking, but got no damage worth mentioning.  The latter part of the night we drifted in a calm without sails until daybreak.

In the morning of the 9th we made sail again and with a weak N.E. wind held our course for the land:  somewhat later in the day the wind turned to N.W., at noon we were in latitude 4 deg. 17’ and had the south-coast of the land east slightly north of us, course and wind as before; in the evening we were close inshore in 25 fathom clayey ground, but since there was no shelter there from sea-winds, we again turned off the land, and skirted along it in the night with small sail, seeing we had no knowledge of the land and the shallows thereabouts; variable wind with rain.