Views of the islands of Amsterdam, St. Paulo and Rottenest
Anoniem / Anonymous / Braam, J. van / Linden, Gerard onder de
Views of the islands of Amsterdam, St. Paulo and Rottenest.
Het Eyland Amsterdam/ Het Eyland St: Paulo / Swartte Swaane drift op het Eyland Rottenest.
This plate is taken from the work 'Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën' by François Valentyn.
The map numbers are given in the top left corners.
In the early seventeenth century the VOC discovered a sailing route to Indonesia which made optimal use of the western winds along the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope and which at the same time avoided as much as possible the becalmed zone along the equator. It was crucial that course was set for the north on time, more or less when the islands of St Paul and Amsterdam were reached. However, this was not always successful, which resulted in one case in the discovery of the west coast of Australia. The island of Rottenest lies off the coast and was discovered in this way.
Please contact Koninklijke Bibliotheek for reuse and copyrights.