(1595) DUTCH NOTIONS RESPECTING THE SOUTH-LAND IN 1595.
_Itinerario, Voyage ofte Schipvaert, van JAN HUYGEN VAN LINSCHOTEN naer
Oost ofte Portugaels Indien [Itinerary, Voyage or Navigation of J. H. v.
L. to Eastern or Portuguese India]_...t' Amstelredam. By Cornelis Claesz
opt Water, in 't Schrijf-boeck by de Oude Brugghe. Anno CIC.IC.XCVI
(1596?-Ed.)[*].
[* There may have been an earlier edition of this book. At all events,
the Netherlanders who in 1595 undertook the first voyage from Holland to
India, were acquainted with the work either in manuscript or in print.
See the journal of this voyage, kept by Frank Van der Does, one of the
sharers of the expedition, and printed in the second volume of J. K. J.
De JONGE'S well-known book: De Opkomst van het Nederlandsch gezag in
Oost-Indië [The Rise of the Dutch power in the East Indies] ('s
Gravenhage, Amsterdam MDCCCLXIV), pp. 287-372. It may safely be assumed
that Van Linschoten's book contains everything that the Dutch knew of
the East, when in 1595 Dutch vessels were first sent out to those remote
regions. Charts Nos 1 (a part of the _Orbis terrarum combmdiosa
descriptio_. Antverpiae apud joafiem Baptistam Vrient), and 2 (a part of
the _Exacta & accurata delineatio cum orarum maritimarum tum eijam
locorum terrestrium quae in regionibus Chiua...una cum omnium vicinarum
instilarum descriptjone ut sunt Sumatra, Java utraque_...) give a survey
of this knowledge so far as our present purpose is concerned. I have made
use of a copy of Van Linschoten's work in the library of the Leyden
University.]
Pag. 25. Chapter the Twentieth.
Concerning the island of Java Mayor, together with its commodities,
merchandise and dealings, weights, coins and value of the same, and other
particulars.
[Map No. 1. Gedeelte der (Part of the) _Orbis terrae compendiosa
describtio_]
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South-south-east, facing the farthest extremity of the island of Samatra,
south of the line _equinoctial_, lies the island called _Java Mayor_, or
great _Java_...This island begins in 7 degrees Latitude South, and
extends east by south a length of 150 miles but of its breadth nothing is
known up to now, since it has not yet been explored, nor is this known to
the inhabitants themselves. Some suppose it to be a mainland, [forming
part] of the land called Terra incognita, which would then extend
hitherward from beyond the _C de boa Esperança_ but of this there is no
certitude hitherto, so that it is usually accounted an island...
[Map No. 2. Gedeelte der (Part of the) _Exacta & accurata delineatio
cum orarum maritimarum tum etjam locorum terrestrium, quae in regjonibus
China...una cum omnium vicinarum insularum descriptjone ut sunt Sumatra,
Java utraque_]
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