lost her rudder...

(They) have not done much worth mentioning, for at the place where the
chart [*] they had with them, led them to expect an open passage, they
did not find any such, so that they could not get to the island they
wished to reach...[**]

[* It is highly probable that this is another allusion to a chart of the
voyage of Willem Janszoon with the Duifken in 1605-1606, because other
documents concerning this expedition of the Arnhem and the Pera put it
beyond a doubt that they had on board a chart of the voyage of the ship
Duifken. In that case the passage in the text proves that Willem Janszoon
already suspected the existence of Torres Strait, since the "open
passage" can hardly refer to anything else.]

[** The remaining part of the letter refers to the time when the two
ships were still together, and contains nothing new.]

Done in the Castle of Nassauw at Nera in the island of Banda, this 16th
of May, A.D. 1623. (signed) ISACK De BRUNE.

B.

_Letter from the Governor-General Antonio Van Diemen to "Commander"
Gerrit Thomaszoon Pool, February 19, 1636._

Worshipful, Provident, very Discreet Sir,

* * *

With the present we also [*] send you a chart of the coasts made A.D.
1623 by the Yachts Pera and Arnhem, together with a small map of the
South-land as surveyed by divers ships coming from the Netherlands, both
of which may be of use to Your Worship [**]...

Done in the Castle of Batavia, February 19, A.D. 1636.

(signed) ANTONIO VAN DIEMEN

[* _Vis_. together with the Instructions of Febr. 19 for Pool's
expedition to the Southland; see _infra_.]

[** To wit, with a view to the voyage just referred to.]

C.

_Instructions for Pool, Febr. 19, 1636._

...Failing ulterior instructions, we desire you to sail as quickly as
possible from Banda to Arnhems and Speultsland, situated between 9 and 13
degrees Southern Latitude, discovered A.D., 1623, as you may further see
from the annexed chart [*]...

[* This, then, is the chart of the "coasts made A.D. 1623 by the yachts
_Pera_ and _Arnhem_"; for the "small map" handed to Pool, in the second
place referred to in the above letter of Febr. 19, 1636, refers to
surveyings of the west-coast of Australia by ships going from the
Netherlands to India, and can therefore have nothing to do with the
expedition of 1623. Arnhems- and Van Speults-Land were accordingly
discovered on the voyage of the Pera and the Arnhem. Now the journal of
the Pera show