_Letter of Jan Pieterszoon Coen to the Directors of the E.I.C._
Most Noble Wise Provident Very Discreet Gentlemen,
The present is a copy of our letter written from Illa de Mayo on the 15th
of April last...On July the 22nd we sailed from the Tafelbay with the
ships Galias, Utrecht and Texel. When coming out to sea we got the wind
from the south, so that we could not sail higher than the Cape, and lost
eight days during which we made no progress. Then getting a favourable
wind we remained together in 37Ω degrees Southern Latitude up to the 10th
of August; the following night, however, the rudder of the Galias broke
in a strong wind, so that the ship became ungovernable, and the sails
were dashed to pieces, in consequence of which she got separated from the
other two ships, who had failed to observe the accident of the Galias
owing to the darkness; {Page 52} the next day, the rudder having been
repaired, we continued our voyage with the Galias, and in the afternoon
of the 5th of September in 28Ω degrees S. Lat. came upon the land of
d'Eendracht. We were at less than half a mile's distance from the
breakers before perceiving the same, without being able to see land. If
we had come upon this place in the night-time, we should have been in a
thousand perils with our ship and crew. In the plane charts the
reckonings of our steersmen were still between 300 and 350 miles from any
land, so that there was not the slightest suspicion of our being near
any, although the reckoning of the chart with increasing degrees showed
only 120 miles, and the reckoning by the terrestrial globe only 50 miles
distance from the land. But to this little attention had been paid. It
seems certain now that the miscalculation involved in the plane chart
from Cabo de bon' Esperança to the Southland in 35 degrees latitude gives
an overplus of more than 270 miles of sea, a matter to which most
steersmen pay little attention, and which has brought, and is still daily
bringing, many vessels into great perils. It would be highly expedient if
in the plane charts most in use, between Cabo de bon' Esperança and the
South-land south of Java, so much space were added and passed over in
drawing up the reckonings, as is deducible from the correct longitude
according to the globosity of earth and sea. We would request Your
Worships to direct attention to this point, and have such indications
made in the plane chart as experts shall find to be advisable; a matter
of the highest importance, which if not properly attended to involves
grievous peril to ships and crews (which God in his mercy avert).
In this plane chart the South-land also lies fully 40 miles more to
eastward than it should be, which should also be rectified.
On the 20th of September we struck the South-coast of Java about 50 or 60
miles eastward of its western extremity...
Your Worships' obedt. servant
J.P. COEN.
At Batavia, October 30, 1627.
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