CHAPTER V 

 THE VOYAGE OF THE "PERA" AND " AERNEM " (1623) 



II. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE EXPEDITION AND ON 

 THE "PERA" NARRATIVE 



SAILING ORDERS FOR THE SHIPS, WITH A " COVERING LETTER " CONTAINING FURTHER 

 INSTRUCTIONS. JOURNAL OF JAN CARSTENSZOON, COMMODORE, KEPT ON THE 

 " PERA." ENGLISH TRANSLATION. THE COMMAND OF THE SHIPS AND THE " FULL 

 COUNCIL." CAPTAIN OF THE " AERNEM " AND NINE OTHERS KILLED BY NATIVES 

 OF NEW GUINEA PROPER. EXPEDITION PASSED " TORRES STRAIT " SATISFIED THAT 

 IT WAS ONLY A SHALLOW BlGHT AND THAT THE CAPE YORK PENINSULA FORMED PART 

 OF NEW GUINEA. 



THE history of the voyages of the " Per a " and " Aernem ^ 

 in 1623 may be studied in the original records of the 

 Dutch East India Company by those who have the oppor- 

 tunity. They consist, in the first place, of a " covering 

 letter," dated 3rd January, 1624, from the Governor- General and 

 Council to the Directors of the Company, and secondly, what is 

 entitled Journal kept by Jan Carstensz. (oori) on bis Voyage to Nova 

 Guinea. 



The letter states that, in January, 1623, Governor VAN 

 SPEULT dispatched from AMBOINA the yachts " Pera r ' and 

 " Arnhem " for the purpose of cultivating friendly relations with 

 the inhabitants of Queij, Aroe and Tenimber and of exploring the 

 land of Nova Guinea. The above-named islanders, it is further 

 stated, had of their own free will placed themselves under the rule 

 and protection of the States of the United Netherlands and 

 promised to come and trade with the fortresses of Banda and 

 Amboina. For the remaining portion of the voyage, along the 

 land of Nova GUINEA (which was described as a barren country, 

 inhabited by absolutely barbarous, cruel savages), the Directors 

 were referred to the enclosure itself. 



The second document, the JOURNAL, was printed in full by 

 L. C. D. Van Dijk, in 1859, i n Mededlingen Oost-Indisch ArchieJ : 

 No. I, Twee Togten naar de Golf van Carpentaria. The portions 

 relating to Australia were subsequently printed by Professor 

 Heeres (Leiden, E. J. Brill ; London, Luzac & Co.) in his work 

 The Part of the Dutch in the Discovery oj Australia, 1606-1765, 

 issued by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society on its twenty-fifth 

 anniversary, in 1899, together with an English translation by Mr. 

 C. Stoffel. The Journal itself is bald and businesslike, makes no 

 pretensions to literary form, and is even careless as to grammatical 



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