(The Drooge Bocht, where we were compelled to leave the western extremity
of Nova Guinea is in 9 degrees 20 minutes S. Lat.)
After hearing the aforesaid reports touching the little depths sounded to
eastward, we are sufficiently assured that it will prove impossible any
longer to follow the coastline which we have so long skirted in an
eastward direction, and that we shall, to our great regret, be compelled
to return the same way we have come, seeing that we have been caught in
the shallows as in a trap; for this purpose we shall have to tack about
and take advantage of the ebb, and as soon as we get into deeper water,
to run south to the sixteenth degree or even farther, if it shall be found
advisable; then turn the ships' heads to the north along the coast of
Nova Guinea, according to our previous resolution taken on the 6th of
March last; as mentioned before, we were here in 9° 6' S. Lat., about 125
miles east of Aru, and according to the chart we had with us and the
estimation of the skippers and steersmen, no more than 2 miles from Nova
Guinea, so that the space between us and Nova Guinea seems to be a bight
to which on account of its shallows we have given the name of drooge
bocht [*] [shallow bight] in the new chart; to the land which we had run
along up to now, we have by resolution given the name of 't Westeinde van
Nova Guinea (Western extremity of N. G.), seeing that we have in reality
found the land to be an unbroken coast, which in the chart is marked as
islands, such as Ceram and the Papues, owing to misunderstanding and
untrustworthy information.
[* Entrance of Torres Strait.]