In 1623, Dutch navigator Jan Carstensz (or Carstenszoon) was commissioned by the Dutch East India Company to lead an expedition to follow up Willem Jansz's 1606 voyage in the Duyfken.
After departing from Amboyna on 21 January 1623 in the Pera accompanied by Willem Joosten Van Colster in the Arnhem the two ships followed the south coast of New Guinea, then crossed the unknown Torres Strait to Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Progress along an uncharted, almost unknown coast was slow, due to a combination of shoals and reefs in the water and the need to make frequent landings to replenish supplies of fresh water and firewood.
Along the way they sighted the mountain now known as Carstensz Pyramid, Carstensz' claim to have sighted the glaciers on the peak attracted ridicule in Europe from sceptics who believed it was not possible to find snow near the equator.
On 11 February a landing on the coast of New Guinea saw the master of the Arnhem and ten of his crew killed in conflict with the local people.
They were still in New Guinea waters at the end of March, when Carstensz decided to go south and made landfall on Cape York 12 April somewhere near Port Musgrave. As the ships continued to sail south, landings found little fresh water and nothing of commercial interest.
On 14 April 1623, the two ship passed Cape Keerweer. The Duyfken's most southerly point, and landed, seeking fresh water and firewood, Carstenszoon encountered a party of Wik people. Carstensz' journal described them as "poor and miserable looking" without "knowledge of precious metals or spices".
On 24 April, near the southern end of the Gulf of Carpentaria, a tablet recording the voyage was placed ashore near the Staaten River, and two days later they turned north.
Persistent attempts to kidnap Wik men provoked aggressive responses.
On 8 May 1623, Carstensz' crew skirmished with two hundred Aborigines at the mouth of a river near Cape Duyfken and landed at the Pennefather River (Carstensz' Carpentier River). Pieter de Carpentier was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies at the time.
Carstensz' landings, and/or those of Jansz before him or subsequent encounters with Tasman or Gonzal and van Aaschens.
At this point, the two ships separated.
Carstensz retraced their outward route and returned to Ambon in the Pera, while the less seaworthy Arnhem cut across the Gulf of Carpentaria, sighting the east coast of Arnhem Land.
By 14 May the Pera was near the mouth of the Jardine River, south-west of Cape York. Carstensz might have discovered the passage between Cape York and New Guinea, but adverse winds and dangerous shallows prevented a close investigation of the waterway.
Carstensz reached Amboyna on 8 June 1623 Amboyna and promptly disappears from sight.
There are no recorded details of his early life or subsequent career, and the Dutch dictionary of biography does not give details of his birth and death. It seems safe to assume that he was, at least, a competent navigator. His report on the country delivered a summary that effectively discouraged further exploration, although Tasman undertook a more detailed charting of the Gulf, Arnhem Land and the north Australian coast in 1644.