than it should be, which should also be rectified.

On the 20th of September we struck the South-coast of Java about 50 or 60
miles eastward of its western extremity...

Your Worships' obedt. servant
J.P. COEN.

At Batavia, October 30, 1627.

* * * * *

XX.

(1627) VOYAGE OF THE SHIP HET WAPEN VAN HOORN, COMMANDED BY SUPER
CARGO J. VAN ROOSENBERGH.
FURTHER DISCOVERY OF THE WEST-COAST OF AUSTRALIA.

_Letter Of Supercargo J. Van Roosenbergh to the Directors of the E.I.C.,
November 8, 1627._

Worshipful Wise Provident Very Discreet Gentlemen,

You have no doubt received my letter from Illa de Mayo...

On the 7th of September we resolved to run for the South-land, that we
might be near Java before the middle of October. On the 17th do. we
sighted the land of d'Eendracht near Dirck Hartochs reede [road-stead],
at about 7 miles' distance from us; the land was of middle height,
something like D'overen [Dover] in England; it is less low than has been
asserted by some, and of a whitish hue, so that at night it cannot be
seen before one is quite close to it. When by estimation we were at two
miles' distance from the land, the coast seemed to have a foreshore
consisting of small hills here and there. According to our observations
the land lay quite differently from what the chart would have us believe,
to wit, North by West and North-north-west, from a point three miles
south of the aforesaid height to a point 8 or 9 miles north of it; which
were the farthest points seen by us; this constituting a difference Of 31/2
{Page 53} points with the chart, which makes it North-north-east and
South-south-west. We cast the lead five miles off the shore in 75 fathom,
muddy bottom mixed with small red pebbles, and five glasses afterwards,
two miles off shore, in 55 fathom sandy bottom, for hardly anything was
found sticking to the lead when heaved. We had seen no other signs of
land beyond gulf-weed floating about in small quantities just as in the
Sargasso Sea, and some land-birds flying high overhead. The many-coloured
birds which we met near the islands of Tristan de Aconcha, left us two
days before, just as they did when we got near Cabo de bone Esperanca, so
that they would seem to dislike the land. Instead of them, we saw a black
bird with a white tail, having white streaks here and there under its
wings; a bird, it seems, of rare occurrence. Three or four days before we
also saw a number of sanderlings. Close inshor