and 10 feet,
which extended a mile or more, and was succeeded by depths Of 2, 21/2, 3, 5
and 7 fathom; they had found the land to extend E. and E. by N., and to
be very low-lying and muddy, and overgrown with low brushwood and wild
trees.

On the 31st the wind was N.N.E. with rain. In the afternoon I rowed with
the two pinnaces to one of the reefs in order to examine the state of
things between the yachts and the land, which space had fallen dry at low
tide; in the afternoon the skipper of the Pera also got orders to row to
the land with the boat duly manned and armed, in order to ascertain
whether anything could be done for the service of our Masters, and to
attempt to get a parley with the inhabitants and to get hold of one or
two of them, if practicable; very late in the evening the boat returned
on board, and we were informed by the skipper that, although it was high
water, they could not come nearer than to a pistol-shot's distance from
the land owing to the shallow water and the soft mud; they also reported
the land to be low-lying and half-submerged, overgrown with brushwood and
wild trees.

* * *

{Page 34}

NOTE.

(The Drooge Bocht, where we were compelled to leave the western extremity
of Nova Guinea is in 9 degrees 20 minutes S. Lat.)

After hearing the aforesaid reports touching the little depths sounded to
eastward, we are sufficiently assured that it will prove impossible any
longer to follow the coastline which we have so long skirted in an
eastward direction, and that we shall, to our great regret, be compelled
to return the same way we have come, seeing that we have been caught in
the shallows as in a trap; for this purpose we shall have to tack about
and take advantage of the ebb, and as soon as we get into deeper water,
to run south to the sixteenth degree or even farther, if it shall be found
advisable; then turn the ships' heads to the north along the coast of
Nova Guinea, according to our previous resolution taken on the 6th of
March last; as mentioned before, we were here in 9 deg. 6' S. Lat., about 125
miles east of Aru, and according to the chart we had with us and the
estimation of the skippers and steersmen, no more than 2 miles from Nova
Guinea, so that the space between us and Nova Guinea seems to be a bight
to which on account of its shallows we have given the name of drooge
bocht [*] [shallow bight] in the new chart; to the land which we had run
along up to now, we have by resolut