They "knew
in part" only: they were aware that they knew nothing with certitude. But
their mercantile interests very soon induced them to try to increase and
strengthen their information concerning the regions of the East. What
sort of country after all was this much-discussed New-Guinea, they began
to ask. As early as 1602 information was sought from the natives of
adjacent islands, but these proved to have "no certain knowledge of this
island of Nova Guinea" [*]. The next step taken was the sending out of a
ship for the purpose of obtaining this "certain knowledge": there were
rumours afloat of gold being found in New Guinea!

[* See No. II of the Documents.]

On the 28th of November 1605 the ship Duifken, commanded by Willem
Jansz., put to sea from Bantam with destination for New Guinea. The ship
returned to Banda from its voyage before June of the same year. What were
the results obtained? What things had been seen by Willem Jansz. and his
men? The journal of the Duifken's voyage has not come down to us, so that
we are fain to infer its results from other data, and fortunately such
data are not wanting. An English ship's captain was staying at Bantam
when the Duifken put to sea, and was still there when the first reports
of her adventures reached the said town. Authentic documents of 1618,
1623, and 1644 are found to refer to her voyage. Above all, the journal
of a subsequent expedition, the one commanded by Carstensz. in 1623,
contains important particulars respecting the voyage of his predecessors
in 1605-6. [*]

[* See pp. 28, 42, 43, 45 _infra_. I trust that these data will go far to
remove COLLINGRIDGE'S doubt (Discovery p. 245) as to whether the ship
Duifken sailed farther southward than 8 deg. 15'.]

On the basis of these data we may safely take for granted the following
points. The ship Duifken struck the south-west coast of New Guinea in
about 5 deg. S. Lat., ran along this coast on a south-east course [*], and
sailed past the narrows now known as Torres Strait. Did Willem Jansz.
look upon these narrows as an open strait, or did he take them to be a
bay only? My answer is, that most probably he was content to leave this
point altogether undecided; seeing that Carstensz. and his men in 1623
thought to find an "open passage" on the strength of information given by
a chart with which they had been furnished. [**] This "open passage" can
hardly refer to anything else than Torres Strait. But in that case it