Dutch navigator Jan Carstensz extended Duyfken's (Willem Jansz) exploration of the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York's western coast.
Born around 1596 in East Friesland, Carstensz entered the VOC's service and arrived in Bantam in 1616 as the under-merchant aboard the Trouw. From 1617 to 1619, he served as a merchant on Poulou Ai in the Banda Islands. He was promoted to upper merchant around 1620.
Carstensz commanded a company of soldiers when the VOC governor-general Jan Pieterszoon Coen set about enforcing a Dutch monopoly over the nutmeg trade. In the process, the Dutch eradicated the Banda islands' native population.
Coen then divided approximately half a million nutmeg trees into sixty-eight 1.2-hectare parcels called perken. They were to be operated by Dutch planters (perkeniers) using enslaved people brought in from elsewhere in the archipelago.
Carstensz resigned from the VOC at the end of the campaign, received ten slaves for his services, and established himself as a perkenier on Banda.
The change was not as lucrative as it had appeared to be.
In 1622 the Governor of Ambon, Herman Van Speult, offered him the command of an expedition to New Holland in place of an aborted mission by the yachts Haringh and Hasewint.
His mission was twofold. He was to travel east from Ambon, visiting Tanimber, Kai and Aru and other islands to persuade the people to trade exclusively with the Dutch in Banda and Ambon.
From there, he was to investigate 'Nova Guinea and the south lands' (New Guinea, the region around Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf of Carpentaria). 'Certain reports and writings seem to imply that the land which we are now near is the Gouwen-Eylandt [Golden Island]'.
Sailing in the Pera, accompanied by Dirk Melisz in the smaller vessel Arnhem, Carstensz tracked along an uncharted, almost unknown coast. Progress was slow due to shoals and reefs and the need to land frequently to replenish fresh water and firewood supplies.
On an unusually clear day on 16 February, Carstensz sighted the snow-capped peak of Puncak Jaya (a.k.a. Carstensz Pyramid). Although the mountain is marked on a chart of the Pera's discoveries by Arent Martensz de Leeuw, the sighting went unverified for over two centuries. Claims that snow could exist on a peak near the equator attracted ridicule from sceptics in Europe.
A landing at Dootslager Rivier (Murderers' River) on 11 February saw the Melisz and nine members of his crew killed in conflict with the local people. The Pera's second mate, Willem Joosten van Colster took over as skipper of the now-undermanned Arnhem.
Although Carstensz attempted to track along New Guinea's southern coast through what we now know as Torres Strait, he found numerous shoals and sandbanks.
Carstensz concluded he was entering a shallow bay leading to a 'Dry Bight'. He reported 'an empty and drowned land, full of underwood and warped trees.'
'Terrible gusts' on 3 March separated the two yachts, and the Arnhem almost foundered. Van Colster believed his vessel was in danger of breaking up, and an inspection by Carstensz confirmed his suspicions. The pair decided that she should carry less sail to minimise strain on the yacht's hull, which slowed the expedition down.
After six unproductive weeks, Carstensz concluded it was impossible to take the yachts any further east. The ships' boats found shallow water ranging from half a fathom to two fathoms that seemed to extend endlessly.
Carstensz concluded it was impossible to sail east. He believed he had entered a shallow bay or 'dry bight' and was in danger of being stranded.
As a result, Carstensz extracted himself with some difficulty and turned his attention southward at the end of March.
The expedition sighted the Australian mainland somewhere near Port Musgrave on 12 April. Proceeding south, Carstensz found 'a fine flat country with few trees, and good soil for planting and sowing, but . . . utterly destitute of fresh water."
The two ships passed Cape Keerweer, the Duyfken's most southerly point, on 14 April. Continued landings searching for fresh water and firewood encountered "poor and miserable looking" people without "knowledge of precious metals or spices".
Under instructions to kidnap local people and put them to 'useful purpose' (as interpreters and guides on future visits) on 18 April, the Dutcmen' seized one of the blacks by a string he wore round his neck, and carried him off to the pinnace'. The prisoner's compatriots 'set up dreadful howls and made violent gestures'. When the Dutchmen landed the following day, some two hundred Wik locals frontally attacked them. Musket fire dispersed the assailants, killing at least one of them.
Another prisoner was restrained a few weeks later with 'a noose round his neck'.
According to Carstensz, who seemed baffled by this development, despite the Dutchmen's 'especial kindness' and 'all our fair semblance' the locals' received us as enemies everywhere.'.
The two captives they managed to secure were 'put in irons' and taken back to Ambon' as curiosities'. Their fate is unknown.
By 24 April, the yachts had reached 17° 8' S, where they named the Staaten River. Carstensz left a wooden board inscribed with the details of his visit near the river's mouth and explored inland for some distance. He found the land was flooded and concluded that extensive waterways and lakes must lie further inland.
With nothing of any promise on the horizon, Carstensz decided to return the way they had come and carefully chart the coastline.
However, Van Colster, concerned about Arnhem's seaworthiness, had other ideas. On the night of 27 April, he weighed anchor and quietly slipped away, sailing northwest across the Gulf of Carpentaria. He named two 'islands' he sighted en route Speult and Arnhem. He arrived at Banda on 15 May without realising he had sighted the part of the Australian mainland subsequently known as Arnhem Land.
Meanwhile, Carstensz retraced his track along Cape York's western coast.
Another landing on 8 May at the mouth of a river near Cape Duyfken saw Carstensz's men attacked by about two hundred local people.
On 14 May were near the mouth of the Jardine River southwest of Cape York. Carstensz was on the verge of discovering the passage between Cape York and New Guinea he had sought, but adverse winds forced him back.
After the Pera arrived in Ambon on 8 June 1623, Carstenszoon disappeared from history.
There are no recorded details of his subsequent career, and the Dutch dictionary of biography does not give details of his birth and death.
His journal delivers a comprehensive report on the coastlines he passed, their people and economic potential, but its unfavourable tone discouraged further exploration.
Following Carstensz's experiences, later VOC expeditions received instructions to avoid going ashore or into the country's interior 'unless well-armed, trusting no one, however innocent the natives may be in appearance, and with whatever kindness they may seem to receive you'.
Sources:
Jim Bain Uncertain Beginnings
Alison Bashford and Stuart Macintyre (eds) The Cambridge history of Australia
Susan Broomhall, Emotional Encounters: Indigenous Peoples in the Dutch East India Company's Interactions with the South Lands.
Michael Cannon, The Exploration of Australia: From First Voyages to Satellite Discoveries
Dictionary of Australian Biography
William Eisler The furthest shore: images of Terra Australis from the Middle Ages to Captain Cook
Raymond Evans, A History of Queensland
J. C. H. Gill The Missing Coast: The Queensland Coast Takes Shape
Jan Tent, The Curious Van Dijk Map of the Gulf of Carpentaria