Early Voyages to Terra Australis/A Written Detail of the Discoveries and Noticeable Occurrences

A WRITTEN DETAIL OF THE DISCOVERIES AND NOTICEABLE OCCURRENCES IN THE VOYAGE OF THE FLUYT "VOSSENBOSCH," THE SLOOP "D'WAIJER," AND THE PATSJALLANG "NOVA HOLLANDIA,"
===DESPATCHED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, ANNO 1705, FROM BATAVIA BY WAY TIMOR TO NEW HOLLAND; COMPILED AS WELL FROM THE WRITTEN JOURNALS AS FROM THE VERBAL RECITALS OF THE RETURNED OFFICERS, BY THE COUNCIL EXTRAORDINARY, HENDRICK SWAARDECRON AND CORNELIS CHASTELIJN, COMMISSIONED FOR THAT PURPOSE, AND FORMING THEIR REPORT TO. HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL, JAN VAN HORN AND THE COUNCIL OF INDIA.===

My Lords.--Before entering into a detail of matters of note occurring on the abovementioned voyage, it may not perhaps be superfluous to offer a few preliminary observations, in order to throw a clearer light upon the subject; briefly these:--that the above mentioned vessels having, in accordance with the instructions delivered to the crew by your excellency, on the twentieth of January of this year, weighed anchor from the port of Batavia on the 23rd of the same month, heard on their way, at Rembang on the east coast of Java, how the sloop Doriados, which had been destined for this voyage instead of the Waijer, had been disabled, but has been helped on its way by friendly vessels to Timor, and thence to New Holland.

They arrived on the twelfth of February before Copang, on the island of Timor, where they were obliged, by bad weather, to remain for twenty days, until the second of March. A month later, namely on the second of April, they explored the north-west corner of Van Diemen's Land, without having so far observed anything remarkable on this voyage, except for fifty or sixty miles straight north and south from this point, the land is elevated, and along the whole of this coast there was continually found from fifty to twenty, and fewer fathoms' water; besides, that on the passage from Timor, the compasses were on the sixth of March affected by the thunder and lightning to such a degree that the north-end of the needle pointed due south, and was brought home in that position.

This point of Van Diemen's land having been thus explored, they occupied themselves, from the second of April to the twelfth of July, in visiting the bays, head lands, islands, rivers, etc., to the best of their ability according to their instructions. But not being sufficiently provided with fresh provisions for so long a voyage, many men on board began to suffer and also to die, from severe sickness, principally fever, acute pains in the head and eyes, and above all, dropsy so that they were compelled to resolve on returning, and to direct their course to Banda; the patsjallang however alone arrived there; the fluit Vossenbosch, and the sloop Waijer, being forced by unfavourable weather and the weakness of the crew, to pass that government, and to hold on towards Macassar, as your nobilities will have already learnt by the papers from Banda and Macassar. The skipper, upper and under steersman, with most of the petty officers and sailors of the Vossenbosch being already dead, and their incomplete journals alone having reached us, the new maps moreover, made by the direction of the skipper Martin van Delft, having been improperly detained at Macassar, we are not at present in a position to forward the same complete information on the subject, which the arrival of these maps would have enabled us to give, as they contain many new names which could not possibly be found in the limited compass of the Company's former charts. According to their own accounts, they have only been able to visit a strip of land of about sixty miles long, on coast E. and W., including merely a very small portion of that great bay, which it was recommended to them to sail over and explore as much as possible.

The daily courses, winds, currents, depths, reefs, soundings,' variations of the compass, and the like observations, more especially depending upon the art of the steersman, are to be found in the above-mentioned journals, and shall here be passed over as out of place, in a compendious report like the present. We shall here principally follow the logbook of the skipper Martin van Delft, of the Vossenbosch, and that of the under steersman Andries Roseboom of the sloop Waijer, as the journals of the captain of the patsjalling, Pieter Fredericks of Hamburg, and of the steersman of the Vossenbosch, notwithstanding their general usefulness, do not afford any additional information as they merely describe the same subject.

Besides the journals, some depositions and other papers of the same kind have reached us, referring to the loss of anchors, ropes sails the courses and bearings of the ship as recorded on board the Vossenbosch, none of them however of a nature to call for further observation here. At the same time we cannot omit to mention two papers, written by the captain of the patsjallang, and entered in the register of Banda, under the letters D.E., containing brief notes of the ship's course, the names of, and dates of departure from, the places visited during the voyage together with the currents encountered, which documents could be forwarded to you, if desired, together with the above-mentioned journals of the skipper of the Vossenbosch, and the captain of the Waijer, and the new maps should they arrive here from Macassar, since the maps of the patsjallang have not been drawn up with due regard to the proper soundings, distances and other requisites, and are, therefore, not to be depended upon.

Continuing our summary of the voyage, we would observe, that from the commencement of the exploration of Van Diemen's land they noticed at several points on the strand signs of men such as smoke and the like. The first inlet within the north point of that land, which was visited by them and called the Roseboom's Bay, runs dead inland, throwing out several branches on both sides. No fresh water is found here. At that time they saw no men, but merely some signs of inhabitants. However on their leaving the bay, some of the natives were caught sight of, running away with their children and dogs, as soon as they perceived our countrymen; and no opportunity was obtained of getting speech of any of them.

The coast here is level. The names Casuaris and Varckenskoek, were given to the points E. and W. of this bay; of two other projecting points on the W. side, which turned out to be islands, one was named Goede Hoop, and the other Kuijle Eijland; they found on the former of them a little water, but brackish and in small quantity.

Between these two islands or headlands, some natives were met by the men on the thirty-first of April, who did not retire, but ran hastily towards an eminence, or small hill, and with obvious, signs and gestures attempted to drive them away. No one was able to understand their language, which, according to the skipper Martin van Delft, seems to resemble in some respects that of Malabar; but even this is by no means clear. The colour and stature of these men appears from the description given to resemble most that of the Indians of the east; but they go stark naked without any regard to age or sex, as was constantly observed by our sailors from the above-mentioned date, until their departure. The only exception to this rule were the women who had children with them, these alone wearing a light covering of leaves or such-like over their middle. The whole number of these islanders did not exceed fourteen or fifteen men; seeing that our people could not be induced by their grimaces, violent gestures, yelling and florishing of assegais, and all kinds of weapons, to retreat from the shore, they were imprudent enough to throw some of their assegais, or rather sharpened sticks at our men, with the intention of wounding and intimidating them; but their chief, or one who at least appeared to be so, being hit by a ball from the single musket that was fired at them in return, the rest began to run quickly away, being very agile and well made.

The women are tall and slim, with very large mouth and small eyes; the head of both sexes is curly, like that of the Papuan islanders, and a yellow or red ointment, prepared from turtle fat, seems to be used as an ornament. The nature of these tribes is foul and treacherous, as was apparent at the last moment, when our people were on the point of departing. Eight islanders attacked and wounded two sailors, with the hope of seizing upon their clothes, and that after having conversed with these men for weeks, eaten and drunk with them, visited them on board and being allowed to examine everything to their great admiration, after having received presents, and also on their part regaled our people with fish and crabs. Besides this, their bad disposition came to light in the case of the man who had been previously wounded by our party as before mentioned; when he afterwards was assisted and bandaged, and had every possible attention shown him by our men, he tore the linen to pieces and threw it away into a corner; notwithstanding that at other times these natives appeared particularly greedy after linen, knives, beads, and such toys.

They however possess nothing which is of value themselves, and have neither iron nor anything like mineral ore or metal, but only a stone which is ground and made to serve as a hatchet. They have no habitations either houses or huts; and feed on fish, which they catch with harpoons of wood, and also by means on nets, putting out to sea in small canoes, made of the bark of trees, which are in themselves so fragile, that it is necessary to strengthen them with cross-beams.

Some of them had marks on their bodies, apparently cut or carved, which, as it seemed to our people, were looked upon by them as a kind of ornament. They eat sparingly and moderately, whereby they grow up always active and nimble; their diet seems to consist of fish, and a few roots and vegetables, but no birds or wild animals of any kind are used as food, for though animal food exists and was found by our men in abundance, the natives appeared to be indifferent to it.

According to the notes of the captain of the sloop Waijer, from the 14th of June, about five hundred people with women and children, were met on one occasion about two miles inland; at night also they were descried sitting around several fires among the bushes; nothing however was seen in their possession of any value. Our men might also easily have taken and brought over to Batavia with them, two or three of the natives who daily came on board, but the skipper of the Vossenbosch, following out his instructions to the letter, would not allow them to be taken without their full consent, either by falsehood or fraud, and as no-one understood their language, nothing was to be done in the matter consequently they remained in their own country.

The country here is for the most part level, and no mountains are to be seen, except a remarkable eminence, which at a distance has the appearance of three mountains, as noted in the journal of the skipper, under date May the 25th. The soil seems productive, if cultivated, but the whole extent of the coast is bordered by sands or downs. In no part were any remarkable trees noticed, much less any of an aromatic and spice kind.

The second bay after the Rooseboom's Bay just described between Tigers and Wolfs-point, visited by our countrymen, has the appearance of a wide river, but is salt; as however nothing remarkable was found there, we shall let the journal of the skipper, on the date May 12th, speak for itself, it being described in the account of the commander of the Waijer, under the name of the Bessia River.

The third inlet visited by the expedition is rather large, its E. point being named Kaijams, and its W. Oranjes-hoek. The tides flow here with great force, and the Patsjallang sailed between eight and ten miles inland, without finding any diminution in the saltness of the water; as the bottom, and the general aspect still remain the same, it was supposed by our people, that this inlet runs right through to the south of New Holland, and not only this, but also others both E. and W. of the angle of Van Diemen's land.

From this it seems to follow, that the South Land in a great measure consists of islands,--a supposition not at all improbable considering how on its south side, from the point called Leeuwin in the year 1622, to Nuyts-land, discovered in 1627, it is entirely girt and surrounded by innumerable islands, although these things had better be left to a more accurate examination of the country, and a more matured judgment. But there is another consideration in favour of this supposition, namely, the rude and barbarous character, and malicious disposition of the above-mentioned islanders, as it has been frequently remarked, that such serious defects are much more generally found among islanders than among the inhabitants of continents. However, be this as it may, we shall only further remark, that the Patsjallang, owing to the strength of the current, was not able to proceed, but was obliged to return to the Vossenbosch, having first discovered within this inlet an island, five miles in circumference, on which was found very good drinking water and a tiger was met with; a number of snipes also were seen on another island, which lay at the entrance of this strait, and of which more is said in the journal of the sloop Waijer, under the date of the eighteenth and nineteenth of May. The weather here was observed to become much colder.

The fourth inlet of those visited by the expedition, called Delft Bay, runs five or six miles inlend, and demands little further notice than as to its position and depths, both of which are to be found clearly stated in the journals and maps, also that it is called on one side of its mouth, Rustenburg, and on the other side in the old maps, it is known under the name of Maria's land, in which district the inhabitants were so stupid, that they attempted to tow the patsjallang, while lying at anchor, with three little canoes, but seeing that no progress was made, they tried to effect their object by tugging at the anchor. This also proving ineffectual, they returned to the shore. Our men employed themselves daily in fishing, the fish here being plentiful, but of no great size, and attempted to arrest the increasing sickness on board.

The fifth and last inlet E. visited by our people, is bounded on one side by the promontory of Lonton, on the other side by the point of Callemore (names given to them by the crew), although the last mentioned point may rather he called an island than a promontory, since the inlet runs round it and again joins the sea. In front of the point Lonton, also an island was found, called by them Schildpads island; nothing remarkable is to be recorded of this place, except that at night, by moonlight, an immense number of black birds, as large as pigeons, were met by the patsjallang Hollandia Nova, which flock continued to pass for half an hour; also that the inhabitants became so much accustomed to our people, that they assisted them in procuring and carrying water; but afterwards they could not conceal their malicious disposition, as we have already narrated.

This last inlet is called Vossenbosch Bay, and also has before the promontory of Calice a small island, where stands a solitary tree, by which it may be recognised.

Thus, thinking we have briefly stated the origin, the adventures, the results and the return of this expedition, so far as they could be investigated, we shall here conclude.

We are, etc., Hk. SWAARDECROON, Cs. CHASTELIJN. (S.) J.S.CRAINE. Batavia Castle, Oct. 6, 1705.