24 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



the port and to what places, what commodities were in demand, 

 how far their navigation had extended, if they knew anything of 

 Nova Guinea, and if they had sent ships there or had been visited 

 by ships from that country. 



The above instructions were entered in the " Gelderlan? s " 

 log of loth April, 1602, and under date I5th May following a 

 note gives what appears to be a brief summary of the report 

 brought back by the " Duyjken " : 



" They [the Ceramites, when interrogated] can say nothing definite respecting 

 the island of New Guinea, but say that white people live on the south side, inhabited 

 by Portuguese, but they had seen no Portuguese ships. They can give no information 

 about their [the New Guineans'] commerce and products." l 



The language of the note is somewhat involved, but it may 

 be taken to mean " white people, possibly Portuguese." Portugal 

 had been in possession of the Molucca Islands, then usually referred 

 to as the Spice Islands, since 1512, and it is more than likely that 

 in the course of nearly a century her sailors had acquired some 

 knowledge of the not very distant southern coast of New Guinea 

 proper and had even spent some time on the land. 



In 1605, Jan Willemszoon Verschoor, Manager of the Dutch 

 East India Company at Bantam, Java, sent out the " Duyjken " 

 on a voyage of discovery, under command of WILLEM JANSZOON. 

 The Subcargo (Junior Supercargo ?) was JAN LODEWIJS VAN 



ROSINGIJN. 



There is much room for doubt as to whether the " Duyjken " 

 was (i) the 6o-ton yacht of the expedition which was equipped 

 in 1603, was commanded by Steven van der Hagen, and came 

 out to the East Indies, or (2) the 3<D-ton yacht attached to the 

 expedition which left the Texel in Holland on 2nd April, 1595, 

 and which sailed by Madagascar, reaching the south-west coast 

 of Sumatra on 1st June, 1596, called at Bali in 1597, turned back 

 on 26th February of that year, and returned to Holland via the 

 south coast of Java and the Cape of Good Hope, reaching the 

 Texel on I4th August, 1597.' 



No description of van der Hagen's 6o-ton " Duyjken " is 

 available, beyond the statement of her tonnage. The Texel 

 " Duyjken " is described as " a small yacht of 30 tons, carrying 

 20 men, and having 2 large and 6 small guns, with 2 bombards," 

 and her master was Simon Lambertsz(oon) Mau. The other 

 vessels of the expedition were of 400, 400, and 200 tons respec- 

 tively. It is reasonable to suppose that this " Duyjken " acted 

 as a tender to the larger vessels, and it is unlikely that in addition 

 to her armament and twenty men she could have had carrying 



1 The Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia, 1606-1765, by J. E. 

 Heeres, LL.D., Professor at the Dutch Colonial Institute, Delft. Published by the 

 Royal Dutch Geographical Society in Commemoration of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary 

 of its Foundation. Leiden, E. J. Brill ; London, Luzac & Co., 1889, p. 3. 



J Collingridge, pp. 216, 222, 240. 



