CHAPTER VIII 

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



V. THE "AERNEM" 



CARELESS LANDING ON NEW GUINEA COAST. SKIPPER AND NINE MEN KILLED AND 

 SOME WOUNDED BY NATIVES. " AfiRNEM's " INFERIOR SAILING QUALITIES. HER 

 DESERTION OF THE " PERA." CROSSES GULF OF CARPENTARIA. GROOTE ISLAND. 

 ARNHEIM LAND. 



NO reader of Carstenszoon's narrative can fail to observe that 

 although the " Aernem " was inferior in sailing qualities 

 to her consort, the " Per a" she was expected to keep up 

 with her, and that her failure to do so was the cause of 

 much friction between the officers of the two ships. 



Before the expedition left the shores of NEW GUINEA proper, 

 and approximately in 4 20' S. lat., the " Aernem " met with a 

 DISASTER which is related by Carstenszoon under date nth February, 

 1623 : 



" The same day the skipper of the yacht " Aernem" DIRCK MELISZOON, without 

 the knowledge of myself or of the supercargo or first mate of the said yacht, unadvisedly 

 rowed to the open beach in the boat, with fifteen persons, officers and hands, with 

 only four muskets, with the object of fishing. There was great disorder in landing, 

 the men running off in different directions, and presently the BLACKS issued savagely 

 from the bush and, to begin with, SEIZED an assistant named JAN WILLENS(ZOON) 

 VAN DEN BRIEL, who was unarmed, and dragged him away from the others, and so 

 forth, without our people having been able to resist or shoot. Next, with arrows, 

 callaways and oars which they took out of the boat, they SLEW no less than NINE of 

 our men and WOUNDED the remaining SEVEN (among them the SKIPPER, who was the 

 first to run away), who by a miracle, and by means of the boat and a single oar, 

 returned to the ship in a sorry plight, the skipper loudly lamenting his gross 

 imprudence and begging forgiveness for the fault he had committed." 



He DIED next day, and was succeeded by WILLEM JOOSTEN VAN 

 COOLSTEERDT, second mate of the " Pera" 



The return voyage had barely commenced when the " Aernem " 

 once more lagged behind (27th April, 1623) before dark, and the 

 " Per a " saw her no more. (SEE MAP H.) The latter was then at 

 anchor off the coast of the Cape York Peninsula, in about 16 25' S. 

 lat. Carstenszoon, in his diary, accuses the " Aernem " of 

 deliberate desertion because her men had no liking for the business, 

 and he believed they desired to have " a good time " at Aru, where, 

 apparently, the natives were kind. It is, indeed, more than likely 



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