IX. (1618).
VOYAGE OF THE SHIP MAURITIUS FROM THE NETHERLANDS TO INDIA UNDER THE COMMAND OF SUPERCARGO WILLEM JANSZ OR JANSZOON AND SKIPPER LENAERT JACOBSZ(OON). FURTHER DISCOVERY OF THE WEST-COAST OF AUSTRALIA.--WILLEMS-RIVER.
Letter Of supercargo WILLFM JANSZ(OON) to the Managers of the Amsterdam Chamber, Oclober 6, 1618.
A.
Worshipful Wise Provident Discreet Gentlemen,
(Sailed 1000 miles to eastward in in 38 degrees with notable success.)
The present serves only to inform you that on the 8th of June last with the ship Mauritius we passed Cape de bon esperence, with strong westerly winds, so that we deemed it inadvisable to call at any land, after which we ran a thousand miles to eastward in 38 degrees Southern Latitude, though we should have wished to go still further east.
On the 31st of July we discovered an island and landed on the same, where we found the marks of human footsteps--on the west-side it extends N.N.E. and S.S.W.; it measures 15 miles in length, and its northern extremity is in 22° S. Lat. It bears Eendracht S.S.E. and N.N.W. from the south-point of Sunda at 240 miles' distance; from there (Eendrachtsland [*]) through God's grace we safely arrived before Bantam on the 22nd of August...
[* This marginal note was made by an official of the East India Company, when the letter had reached its destination.]
Done on board the ship 't Wapen van Amsterdam, October 6, 1618.