Chapter XXI

(1628) DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF AUSTRALIA BY THE SHIP VIANEN (VIANE, VIANA), COMMANDED BY GERRIT FREDERIKSZOON DE WITT.--DE WITT'S LAND.

A.

_Letter of the Governor-General and Councillors to the Managers of the E.I.C. November 3, 1628._

...[We] thought fit to give orders for the ship Vyanen [*] to sail to the strait of Balamboan. [She] sailed [from Batavia] thither on the 14th of January, and from there stood out to sea on the 25th do. She was by head-winds driven so far to south-ward that she came upon the South-land beyond Java where she ran aground, so that she was forced to throw overboard 8 or 10 lasts of pepper and a quantity of copper, upon which through God's mercy she got off again without further damage...

[* That commander Gerrit Frederikszoon De Witt, was on board this ship, is proved by an original letter of his, dated August 6, 1628 (Hague State Archives).]

B.

_See the Hessel Gerritsz--Huydecoper Chart (No 5.--VII D), which has G. F. De Witts-land._

C.

_Instructions for Tasman, 1644 [*]._

[* The well-known chart of TASMAN, 1644 (see my Life of, Tasman, pp. 71-73) also has the name G. F. De Witt's Land.]

...Meanwhile in the year 1627 the ship t' Gulde Zeepaert,...discovered...the south coast of the great Southland, and in the following year 1628 the ship Viana, homeward bound from Batavia, equally unexpectedly discovered the coast of the same land on the north side in the Southern Latitude of 21 degrees, and sailed along it a distance of about 50 miles; none of these discoveries, however, resulting in the obtaining of any considerable information respecting the situation and condition of this vast land, it only having been found that it has barren and dangerous coasts, green, fertile fields and exceedingly savage, black, barbarian inhabitants...

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