This issue of the journal of the Royal Dutch Geographical Society contains the first and only publication of the original text of the primary logbook of the first Dutch expedition to the Arabian (or Persian) Gulf in 1645. This logbook was kept by the leader of the expedition, Captain Cornelis Cornelisz Roobacker, and it is one of three logbooks to have survived the journey. They are kept at the National Archives of the Netherlands as a part of the collection of the VOC official Wollebrand Geleynssen de Jongh (1594-1647). Roobacker's logbook was the only one of the three to have been selected for publication; it was edited by Albert Paulus Hermanus Hotz (1855-1930), a Dutch businessman in Iran and consul in Beirut. Hotz also wrote other articles on Dutch activities in the Arabian Gulf region and formed a large collection of Arabic manuscripts, early photographs and books on the Middle East.
The illustration of a chart Hotz added to his publication of Roobacker is one of a different Dutch nautical chart that was made during the second half of the 17th century, since Hotz did not know about the original in Karlsruhe. Regardless of what exact chart Hotz used, it is a useful addition to illustrate the locations in the Arabian Gulf region, mentioned in the text of Roobacker's logbook of the expedition.
Very slight foxing throughout, 2 of the 3 maps at the end of the work are loose, overall in very good condition. Slot, The Arabs of the Gulf, p. 11; Slot, The origins of Kuwait, pp. 18-19.