_Letter of Skipper Haevick Claeszoon van Hillegom to the Managers of the
E.I.C. at Amsterdam, dated June 24, 1618._
Laus Deo. On board the ship Seewolf lying at anchor before Jaeketerae,
this 24th of June 1618.
Right Worshipful Beloved Gentlemen My Lords Directors of the United
Company at Amsterdam, with friendly greeting, the present, after my best
wishes for the {Page 12} well-being and health of my Worshipful Noble
Masters, serves to express my hope that Your Worships may have duly
received, through Pieter Gertsz, skipper of the ship Enckhuyzen [*], my
letters of the 22nd of March, written in the Taefel Bay, recounting what
had happened on our voyage up to said date. The present further serves to
inform Your Worships of our progress up to this day, as follows. We set
sail from the Cape de bon Esperanse on the 24th of the same month...
[* See _supra_ A.]
On the 5th of May we got into Latitude 28° 26' South, when we saw numbers
of birds many of which seemed to be land-birds, such as a white
tropic-bird and a few scissor-tailed ducks, so that I surmised that we
were near land. Two or three days afterwards we saw sea-weed floating in
large quantities and long strips. On the 10th do. we passed the tropic in
fine weather. On the 11th do. we saw land in 21° 20' S. Lat.: it was a
level, low-lying coast extending to a great length, and bearing mainly
south and north, falling off on both sides with high mountains; we could
not get near it. Whether it was a mainland coast or islands only, is
known to God alone, but from the signs seen at various times I suspect it
to be a mainland. The compass has one point north-westerly variation
here; we saw a good deal of sea-weed floating about, and observed
land-birds up to the 16th degree, both of these being signs of the
proximity of the mainland. This land is a fit point to be made by ships
coming here with the eastern monsoon, in order to get a fixed course for
Java or Sunda Strait; for if you see this land in 21, 22 or 23 degrees,
and shape your course north-north-west and north-by-west you will make
the western extremity of Jaeva. I write this as a matter of certainty,
seeing that we have made the same on a fixed course, and ships following
this course are sure to find it true. On the 21st do. we saw land, to wit,
Kleyn Jaevae; we kept off and on during the night, and at daybreak made
for the land, passing through the strait between Kleyn Jaeva and Baely...