Close attention should be paid to the disposition of the people, their character, condition and humours; to the religion they profess and to their manner of government; their wars, their arms and weapons; the food they eat and the clothes they wear, and what they mainly subsist on.
Careful observation should be made, and exact records kept, of the winds and currents, the rains and tides etc. which you shall meet with in this your intended voyage.
You will make due observation also of all lands, islands, strands, rivers, bays, points, rocks, reefs, cliffs, shallows and whatever else appertains to the same; of all which you will have accurate surveyings made, showing the true bearings, longitude and latitude, in accordance with the circumstances under which you shall get sight and knowledge of the same.
For this purpose availing yourselves of the services of Subcargo Pieter Pietersen...
You will not carry off with you any natives against their will, but if a small number of them should be found willing to come hither of their own accord, you will grant them passage...
Commander Francisco Pelsert, having A.D. 1629 put ashore there two Dutch delinquents, who had in due form of justice been sentenced to forfeit their lives [*], you will grant passage to the said persons, if they should be alive to show themselves, and should request you to be brought hither.
[* See ante, p. 62.]
It would be a thing highly desirable for ships bound from the Netherlands to India, if on the coast of the South-land between 26 and 28 degrees a fitting place for obtaining refreshments and fresh water could be discovered, seeing that mainly about that latitude scorbut and other disorders begin to show themselves, at times carrying off numbers of men even before they reach Batavia.
Finally, as hereinbefore mentioned, we shall expect you back here through Sunda Strait, if no obstacles come in your way to prevent this, and if the land is found to extend in one unbroken coast~line, as we surmise it to do, of which your experience will be our teacher.
It should furthermore be noted that we are convinced that the west-coast of Nova Guinea, or the land discovered as far as Lat. 17° 8' South by the Yachts Pera and Arnhem, forms one whole with the South-land, a point which in drawing up these Instructions we have taken for granted.