_Letter of Commander_ FREDERIK DE HUTMAN _to Prince Alaurice, October 7,
1619._
Most Noble Highborn Prince,
Most Highborn Prince, my last letter to Your Princely Excellency was
dated May the 20th last from the Taefelbay near Cabo de bonne esperance
with the ship Anna from England...
Now as regards my subsequent progress I would inform Your Excellency that
on the 8th of June we set sail from the Tafelbay with a fair wind with
the ships Dordrecht and Amsterdam, add that on the 19th of July following
we suddenly came upon the Southland of Beach [*] in 32 degrees 20
minutes. We spent a few days there in order to get some knowledge of the
same, but the inconvenience of being unable to make a landing, together
with the heavy gales, prevented us from effecting our purpose, upon which
shaping our course for Java, we got sight of the same on the 19th of
August, and arrived safely before Jacatra on the 3rd of September...
[* Though De Houtman knew of the discovery of Eendrachtsland (see
_infra_), he still uses the name Beach; which clearly proves that in the
early part of the seventeenth century the Netherlanders identified the
discovered South-land with the mysterious land of Beach.]
From Jacatra, this seventh of October, A.D. 1619.
(Signed)