Jan Carstensz (1623)
Seventeen years after Willem Jansz encountered Cape York's west coast, Jan Carstensz extended the Duyfken's exploration of the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York's western coast.
After arriving in the Indies in 1616, Carstensz served as a merchant and commanded a company of soldiers when Jan Pieterszoon Coen set about enforcing a Dutch monopoly over the nutmeg trade.
In 1622, after a brief spell as a perkenier (planter) on Banda, Carstensz accepted Herman Van Speult's offer to command an eastbound expedition.
His mission was twofold. He was to travel east from Ambon, visiting Tanimber, Kai, 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).
Carstensz left Amboina in the Pera in late January 1623, accompanied by the Arnhem.
After sighting and attempting to track along New Guinea's southern coast through shoals and sandbanks in Torres Strait, the vessels turned southward, passed Cape Keerweer and reached the Staaten River before separating from the Arnhem, whose captain was concerned about the vessel's seaworthiness.
Carstensz retraced his track along Cape York's western coast. Meanwhile, the Arnhem returned to Banda by sailing northwest across the Gulf of Carpentaria, encountering what became known as Arnhem Land en route.
After the Pera arrived in Ambon on 8 June 1623, Carstensz moved back and forth between the Netherlands and the Indies, with missions to the Persian Gulf, Taiwan, China and Mozambique..
His journal delivers a comprehensive report on the coastlines he passed, their people and their economic potential, but its unfavourable tone discouraged further exploration.
