1623 ~  Jan Carstenszoon

Source: The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606–1765

In 1623, the Dutch East India Company dispatched two vessels — the Pera and the Arnhem — to continue exploration of the Gulf of Carpentaria and the western coast of Cape York Peninsula. The expedition was led by Jan Carstenszoon, captain of the Pera, while Willem Joosten van Colster commanded the Arnhem.

The Gulf would take its European name from Pieter de Carpentier, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Carstenszoon’s surviving journal also indicates that the name “Carpentier” was associated with a river on the expedition’s new chart, although historian J. E. Heeres noted that the name had been erased in the surviving manuscript.

Carstenszoon followed much of the same coastline explored by Willem Janszoon seventeen years earlier and made several landings farther south, including in the region around the modern Mitchell River.

Carstenszoon’s account survives through Dutch archival records, including versions and extracts of his journal. In 1899, historian J. E. Heeres published these records with English translations in his meticulous work, The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606–1765. They provide some of the earliest surviving detailed European descriptions of Aboriginal people and Country in northern Australia.

On 17 April 1623, while sailing along the western side of Cape York Peninsula, the Dutch saw “great volumes of smoke” rising from the land. A party was sent towards shore in two pinnaces — small, lightly built ship’s boats.

Carstenszoon’s journal records:

“…the men had in various places seen blacks emerging from the wood, while others lay hid in the coppice; they therefore sent a man ashore with some pieces of iron and strings of beads tied to a stick, in order to attract the blacks; but as nothing could be effected, and the night was coming on, they had been forced to return to the yachts.”

Later that day, Carstenszoon himself went ashore and made his way inland, finding:

“…flat, fine country with few trees, and a good soil for planting and sowing, but so far as we could observe utterly destitute of fresh water. Nor did we see any human beings or even signs of them.”

The following day, 18 April, the Dutch encountered a much larger group of Aboriginal people.

According to Carstenszoon, the men showed little fear of the strangers and were curious enough to touch the Dutch muskets and attempt to take them from the sailors’ shoulders.

The Dutch then used their trade goods as a distraction. While showing the men iron and beads, they seized one Aboriginal man by a cord around his neck and carried him away to their pinnace.

Carstenszoon recorded:

“These blacks showed no fear and were so bold as to touch the muskets of our men and to try to take the same off their shoulders … our men accordingly diverted their attention by showing them iron and beads, and espying vantage, seized one of the blacks by a string which he wore round his neck, and carried him off to the pinnace; the blacks who remained on the beach, set up dreadful howls and made violent gestures …. These natives are coal-black, with lean bodies and stark naked, having twisted baskets or nets round their heads … they seem to be less cunning, bold and evil-natured than the blacks at the western extremity of Nova Guinea; their weapons, of which we bring specimens along with us, are less deadly than those we have seen used by other blacks; the weapons in use with them are assagays, shields, clubs and sticks about half a fathom in length; as regards their customs and policy and the nature of the country, Your Worships will in time be able to get information from the black man we have got hold of...”

The journal therefore makes clear that the man was forcibly taken as a captive and potential source of information for the Dutch colonial authorities, rather than being taken back to the Netherlands.

The following day, 19 April, another Dutch landing party went ashore to cut firewood.

According to Carstenszoon, they were approached by more than 200 Aboriginal people. The Dutch fired two shots, and Carstenszoon recorded that one Aboriginal man was struck and fell.

The Dutch then continued farther inland, where they encountered something they did not understand.

In “various places” they found “great quantities of divers human bones.”

From the presence of those remains, Carstenszoon reached an extraordinary conclusion:

“…from which it may be safely concluded that the blacks are man-eaters who do not spare each other when driven by hunger.”

But Carstenszoon had not witnessed cannibalism.

He had found human remains and interpreted what he saw according to his own understanding.

NOTE: Aboriginal mortuary practices could involve complex treatment of human remains, including secondary burial practices. The presence of human bones was therefore not, by itself, evidence of cannibalism. This interpretation should be separately sourced from appropriate archaeological and Aboriginal community evidence rather than attributed to Heeres.

By 24 April, the expedition was facing difficult winds, dangerous shallow waters and concerns about continuing farther south. Carstenszoon convened a council, at which it was resolved to end the expedition’s southward exploration and turn north again.

But the council also made a disturbing decision. The Dutch formally authorised attempts to capture more Aboriginal people, offering:

“…10 pieces of eight to the boatmen for every black they shall get hold of on shore…”

The expedition had therefore created a financial incentive for the capture of Aboriginal people.

As the Pera retraced its route north, encounters continued.

On 5 May, Carstenszoon described Aboriginal men encountered by the expedition as:

“…like all the others we have lately seen, of tall stature and very lean to look at, but malignant and evil-natured.”

Importantly, this judgement came after the Dutch had already abducted an Aboriginal man, fired upon Aboriginal people and authorised further captures.

On 8 May, near the river Carstenszoon called the Coen River, another abduction took place.

Carstenszoon and ten armed men had gone ashore and followed footprints while searching the area and gathering edible plants. They subsequently encountered a group of armed Aboriginal men.

During the confrontation, one man who had lost his weapon was seized.

Carstenszoon recorded:

“…one of them who had lost his weapon, was by the skipper seized round the waist, while at the same time the quartermaster put a noose round his neck, by which he was dragged to the pinnace…”

The other Aboriginal men attempted to intervene, and the Dutch again fired their weapons.

Carstenszoon wrote of the captive:

“…I hope that with God’s help Your Worships will in time get information… from the black we have captured.”

The expedition therefore now held two Aboriginal captives.

Violence continued.

On 12 May, the Dutch encountered another large group of Aboriginal people. During the confrontation, an Aboriginal man was shot in the breast. The Dutch took the wounded man into their pinnace, but he died before they reached the Pera.

Among his possessions, the Dutch found a piece of metal.

Carstenszoon speculated that it might have originated with the Duyfken, which had explored the same coast seventeen years earlier. If he was correct, the object may have been retained or passed through Aboriginal networks since Janszoon’s 1606 voyage. However, its connection to the Duyfken was Carstenszoon’s own speculation and cannot now be established.

As the expedition continued north, Carstenszoon delivered a damning assessment of both the region and its people:

“…during all the time we have searched and examined this part of the coast to our best ability, we have not seen one fruit-bearing tree, nor anything that man could make use of; there are no mountains or even hills, so that it may be safely concluded that the land contains no metals, nor yields any precious woods, such as sandal-wood, aloes or columba. In our judgment this is the most arid and barren region that could be found anywhere on the earth; the inhabitants, too, are the most wretched and poorest creatures that I have ever seen in my age or time.”

But once again, Carstenszoon was assessing Aboriginal Australia according to European ideas about wealth and usefulness.

The Dutch were searching for commercially valuable commodities — metals, precious woods, agricultural products and other resources that could be exploited or traded.

They did not recognise the value contained in Aboriginal knowledge of Country, food systems, family and exchange networks, law and culture.

The absence of things the Dutch valued became, in Carstenszoon’s account, evidence that both the land and its people were poor.

What happened to the captives?

Heeres does not provide a clear account of what ultimately happened to the two Aboriginal men captured during the expedition.

Historian John Mulvaney, writing in the peer-reviewed article Aboriginal Australians Abroad 1606–1875 in 1988, later examined contemporary evidence concerning the captives. He concluded that “both captives evidently reached Batavia”, the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company in the East Indies.

Batavia — now Jakarta — was the centre of Dutch colonial power in the region.