Page:Early voyages to Terra Australis.djvu/194

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and very wild, black, barbarous inhabitants ; all which, by the loss of the ship Batavia, and the cruelties and miseries which followed from that, is fully proved, and was expe- rienced by the crew of the yacht Sarclam, in their course along this coast.

At last the fourth voyage was undertaken (in our govern- ment) in the month of April 1636, from Banda, with the yachts Clyn Amsterdam and Wesel, under the command of Gerrit Tomasz Pool, for the discovery of the east and south lands ; when they first discovered the coast of Nova Guinea in 3|° south latitude, and coasted about 60 miles (240') to the eastward to 5° S. ; when the commodore Pool, with three of the crew (by the barbarous inhabitants) was mur- dered, at the same place where the skipper of the yacht Arnhem was killed in the year 1623.

Notwithstanding which the voyage was assiduously con- tinued, under the supercargo Pieter Pietersz, and the islands Key and Aroum visited ; by very strong easterly winds they could not reach the west coast of Nova Guinea, but shaping their course very near south, descried the coast of Arnhem or Van Diemen's Land, in 11° south latitude, and sailed along the coast for 30 miles (120), without seeing any peo- ple, but many signs of smoke ; when, turning towards the north, they visited the unknown islands of Timor Laut,' and the known islands of Tenimber, Kauwer, etc., but without ever being able to converse with the inhabitants, who were a very timid people ; when, after three months cruising, they returned in July to Banda, without (in this voyage) having done or discovered anything of consequence ; which may be seen by the journals and maps.

After the little success in these voyages, nothing further

^ The word " laut" means south, but is erroneously spelt in the origi- nal translation " landt." A similar blunder has been abundantly re- peated on the maps of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the name of "Laut Chidol," the Southern Sea, there spelt constantly Laut- chidol.