commander had indeed "surveyed and made
soundings on the coasts, but had made few landings." At the same time
Manager Witsen mentions not without some satisfaction the results of this
voyage, meagre though they may be in his eyes, in letters to friends both
at home and abroad, imparting to them what he has learned on the subject
[**]. A few years later, however, he bitterly complains of the
indifference of many of his countrymen in those days: "What does Your
Worship care about curious learning from India," he grumbles in a letter
to one of his friends [***] "no, sir, it is money only, not learned
knowledge that our people go out to seek over there, the which is sorely
to be regretted."

[* _Resolution of the "Heeren XVII", August 25, 1692; see also p. 60
infra._]

[** As regards this see J F GEBHARD _Het leven van Witsen_ I., pp. 480 f.:
II. pp. 260 f. (Letter of Witsen to "Dr. Martin Lister, fellow of the
Colledge of Physicians and R. S., concerning some late observations in
Nova Hollandia" October 3, 1698), pp. 299 f. (Letter to Gijsbert Cuper at
Deventer, 1698?) pp. 407, 414, 416]

[*** Witsen to Cuper, August 1, 1712 (GEBHARD p. 480).]

"The which is sorely to be regretted!"...The times of Van Diemen had
failed to return; the spirit by which he was imbued no longer presided
over the debates on colonial matters. But his name is indissolubly bound
up with the palmy days of Dutch discovery in the Far East, initiated by
the East India Company.

Fortunately, in our time Holland again bears a part in what is done by
cultured Europe for the scientific exploration of the unknown regions of
the world. In this field of inquiry the nineteenth century has again
beheld her sons take a place which the achievements of their forefathers
have as it were by right of inheritance assigned to them.

* * * * *
* * *

{Page 1}

DOCUMENTS.

I.

(1595) DUTCH NOTIONS RESPECTING THE SOUTH-LAND IN 1595.

_Itinerario, Voyage ofte Schipvaert, van JAN HUYGEN VAN LINSCHOTEN naer
Oost ofte Portugaels Indien [Itinerary, Voyage or Navigation of J. H. v.
L. to Eastern or Portuguese India]_...t' Amstelredam. By Cornelis Claesz
opt Water, in 't Schrijf-boeck by de Oude Brugghe. Anno CIC.IC.XCVI
(1596?-Ed.)[*].

[* There may have been an earlier edition of this book. At all events,
the Netherlanders who in 1595 undertook the first voyage from Holland to
India, were acquainted with the work either in manuscript or in print.