(1) This appears from a private letter from the governor-general of Batavia to the "Heren XVII" of the VOC dated 30 November 1697.

(2) In 1705 skipper Jacob Weyland discovered a large bay on the northwest coast of New Guinea with the ship the Geelvinck and named it the Geelvinkbaai.

(3) See at the National Archives in The Hague under VOC the section Overgekomen brieven en papieren (Transferred letters and papers), 1.04.02, inventory number: 1589, page 1232 (= scan 125):

(4) The logbook Cornelis de Vlamingh wrote is kept by the National Archives in The Hague and can therefore still be read: Copie daghregister gehouden bij den commandant stierman Cornelis de Vlamingh in 't galjoot 't Weseltje in de reijse van Batavia naer 't eijlandt Monij en wederom van 12 Maij tot 17 Junij 1697 (= Copy of the daily register kept by the commander of the steerman Cornelis de Vlamingh in the galiot 't Weseltje on the trip from Batavia to the island of Monij and again from 12 May to 17 June 1697). VOC the section Overgekomen brieven en papieren (Letters and papers transferred), 1.04.02, inventory number: 1587, (Booklet: Batavia Page 689-703 (= scan 713)).

(5) There is a private missive from the Governor-General of Batavia (Willem van Outshoorn) and the councils of the Indies to the Council of XVII on November 30th, 1697. It says it was their intention to send the skippers with the first return fleet home to the Netherlands to report verbally on their adventures. And then the text reads: but they have not yet returned from Bengal with their ships, the Geelvinck and Nijptang.

(6) See Marion Peters in her book De wijze koopman, Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, December 2009, page 92.

(7) According to the letter from the Governor General and councils of the VOC on November 30, 1697.

(8) Letter of November 30, 1697.

(9) According to W.C.H. Robert in Willem de Vlamingh’s explorations of Australia, 1696-1697 (Amsterdam, Philo Press, 1972), de Vlamingh only made an error of about 10 minutes in his observation. Considering the limited resources of the time, this was pretty accurate!

(10) This letter was published by the Royal Society of London as early as 1699. In Philosophical Transactions. (Early Letters W3 54). According to a solid article by E. Charles Nelson in the Archives of Natural History (1994) 21 (2): 147-167, which was very kindly sent to us by the staff of the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam, the published letter differs here and there slightly different from the original. We therefore used E. Charles Nelson's transcription.

(11) See the letter to Gijsbert Cuper from 1698 (so this was even before Nicolaes Witsen had spoken to Willem de Vlamingh) in De ontdekkingsreis van Willem Hesselsz. de Vlamingh in de jaren 1696-1697  (= The voyage of discovery of Willem Hesselsz. de Vlamingh in the years 1696-1697). Published by G.G. Schilder. The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1976, page 291.