_Instructions for Skipper Commander Abel Jansen Tasman, Skipper
Pilot-Majjr Frans Jacobsen Visscher, and the Council of the Yachts
Limmen, Zeemeeuw, and the Quel de Brack, destined for the further
discovery of Nova Guinea, and of the unknown coasts of the discovered
East- and South-lands, together with the channels and islands presumably
situated between and near the same._
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Both by word of mouth and through the perusal of Journals, Charts and
other writings, it is in the main well-known to you, how the successive
Governors of India, at {Page 6} the express command of our Lords and
Masters the "Heeren XVII", have, in order to the aggrandisement,
enlargement and improvement of the Dutch East India Company's standing
and trade in the East, divers times diligently endeavoured to make timely
discovery of the vast country of Nova Guinea and of other unknown Eastern
and Southern regions; to wit, that four several voyages have up to now
with scant success been made for this desired discovery; of the which
voyages the first was undertaken in the year 16066 with the Yacht 't
Duyffken, by order, of President Jan Willemsz Verschoor (who then managed
the Company's affairs in Bantham), on which voyage the islands of Key and
Arouw were visited in passing, and the unknown south and west coasts of
Nova Guinea were discovered over a length of 220 miles from 5 to 13æ
degrees Southern Latitude, it being only ascertained that vast regions
were for the greater part uncultivated, and certain parts inhabited by
savage, cruel, black barbarians who slew some of our sailors, so that no
information was obtained touching the exact situation of the country and
regarding the commodities obtainable and in demand there.\; our men
having by want of provisions and other necessaries, been compelled to
return and give up the discovery they had begun, only registering in
their chart with the name of Cape Keer-weer the extreme point of the
discovered land in 13æ degrees Southern Latitude.
In the castle of Batavia, this 29th of January Ao 1644. Signed ANTONIO
VAN DIEMEN, CORNELIS VAN DER LIJN, JOAN MAETSUIJCKER, JUSTUS SCHOUTEN and
SALOMON SWEERS.
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