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Praise God.  April 1626.

26 do.  Latitude 291/2 degrees, sailed 36 miles...

27 do.  Latitude 27 2/3 degrees, sailed 28 miles; course held north-east; the wind being south and south-west, I had the top-gallants set.  God grant what is best for us.  Amen.  Course kept North-north-east.

28 do.  In the morning we took the sun’s azimuth:  between 7 and 8 degrees to northward, the rise being 16 degrees.  We sighted land, being the Southland, at 10 miles’ distance.  We found a strong current here, with a depth Of 40 fathom.  The current set to eastward or straight against the land.  In the evening we shaped our course to North-west.

29 do.  Latitude slightly under 26 deg.. the weather was calm, so that we ran along the coast, North and at times North-north-west.  In the evening I saw the endmost (?) land north-east of me; the wind blowing from the south.

30 do.  In the morning I took the sun’s azimuth:  between 9 and 10 degrees to northward, the rise being 161/2 degrees, remains 71/2 degrees.  At noon Latitude 24 deg. 47’.  Course held North by west, with a southerly wind; sailed 18 miles; in the evening it fell calm...

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{Page 51}

XVIII.

(1627) DISCOVERY OF THE SOUTH-WEST COAST OF AUSTRALIA BY THE SHIP HET GULDEN ZEEPAARD, COMMANDED BY PIETER NUIJTS, MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF INDIA, AND BY SKIPPER FRANCOIS THIJSSEN OR THIJSZOON.

A.

Dail Register of what has happened here at Batavia from the first of January, 1627 [*].

[* On p. 307 of my edition of the Daily Register of 1624-1629.]

...On the 10th [of April] there arrived here from the Netherlands the ship t’ Gulden Seepaart fitted out by the Zealand Chamber [*], having on board the Hon. Pieter Nuyts, extraordinary Councillor of India, having sailed from there on the 22nd of May, 1626...

[* The Register of outgoing vessels of the E.I.C. shows that the skipper’s name was Francois Thijssen or Thijszoon.]

B.

Hessel Gerritsz-Huydecoper Chart (No. 5.—­VII D).

This chart has ’t land van Pieter Nuijts (discovered January 26 [*], 1627) and the islands of Sint Francois and Sint Pieter.

[* Some of the charts have February, but most of them January.  This month is also mentioned as the time of the discovery in the instructions for Pool (1636, see infra) and for Tasman (1644).  Cf. my Life of Tasman, pp. 97f.]

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XIX.

(1627) VOYAGE OF THE SHIPS GALIAS, UTRECHT AND TEXEL, COMMANDED BY GOVERNOR-GENERAL JAN PIETERSZOON COEN.  FURTHER DISCOVERY OF THE WEST-COAST OF AUSTRALIA.

A.

Letter of Jan Pieterszoon Coen to the Directors of the E.I.C.

Most Noble Wise Provident Very Discreet Gentlemen,