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Coastline profile the island Karkar and the volcano Kunugui near New Guinea

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Coastline profile the island Karkar and the volcano Kunugui near New Guinea

Gilsemans, Isaac

On 20 and 21 April 1643 the expedition of Abel Tasman finally approached the mainland of New Guinea. Here they observed an island with a high, smoking volcano. This was the island known today as Karkar. Tasman realized that this was the ‘burning island’ with a tall volcano observed previously by Willem Schouten during an earlier expedition. This volcano is mount Kunugui.-Isaac Gilsemans, supercargo on board the Zeehaen, is commonly identified as the artist who drew this depiction of the landscapes of the ‘burning island’ (Dutch: brandende eiland) in the top panels and of the smoking volcano on the bottom panels.

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Sources and literature

Posthumus Meyjes, De Reizen van Abel Janszoon Tasman en Franchoys Jacobszoon Visscher, ter nadere ontdekking van het Zuidland (Australië) in 1642 - 1644. (1919)