SOME PARTICULARS RELATING TO THE VOYAGE OF WILLEM DE VLAMINGH TO NEW HOLLAND IN 1696.
Extracted from MS. Documents at the Hague.
Of this expedition, which owes its origin to the loss of the ship De Ridderschap van Hollandt, between the Cape of Good Hope and Batavia, in the year 1685, reports are to be found in various works, as in Witsen, Valentijn, the Historische Beschrijving der Reizen, perhaps also in some others. No coherent account, however, appears to exist, although we read in the last-mentioned work that a narrative of the voyage was published in 1701, at Amsterdam.[[28]]
The project originally formed was, that the expedition should set out from Batavia, and the Directors of the Council of the Seventeen write on this understanding in their dispatch of November 10th, 1695, to the Governor-General and Council of India; but in the assembly of December 8th and 10th of that year[[29]] that plan was abandoned, and it was resolved that, “for various reasons,” the expedition should be undertaken from the Cape of Good Hope, under the command of William de Vlamingh, with orders to land at the islands of Tristan d’Acunha, on this side of the Cape, and also at the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam, to examine and to survey them.
For this purpose three ships were fitted out: the frigate De Geelvinck, commodore Willem de Vlamingh; the hooker De Nijptang, Captain Gerrit Collaert; and the galiot Weseltje, Captain Cornelis de Vlamingh, son of the commodore.
“On Thursday, the 3rd of May, 1696, at one o’clock in the morning, the noble Burgomaster Hinlopen sent the Company’s boat, having on board the Commander Barent Fockesz, with orders that we should put to sea at daybreak.” They accordingly weighed anchor, and set sail northwards towards England.
On the result of this expedition the Governor-General and Council of India report to the Directors of the Council of Seventeen as follows:—
“For the result of the voyage of the three above-mentioned ships, which, according to the order of the Gentlemen Seventeen of the 10th of November 1695, and 16th of March 1696, and according to your instruction of the 23rd of April of the same year, have prosperously completed their journey over the islands of Tristan d’Acunha, the Cape, islands of Amsterdam and St. Paulo, and have also arrived here, both crew and vessels in a tolerably good condition, we shall principally have to refer you to their journals and notes, together with their maps and some drawings of those places; all of which, with the draughtsman himself, the overseer of the infirmary Victor Victorsz, will reach you by the ship’s Lants Welvaren; the drawings, packed up in one box, consisting of eleven pieces, viz.:—
7 of several places on the South Land.
1 of the island Tristan d’Acunha.
1 of the island Amsterdam.
1 of the island St. Paulo, and
1 of the island Mony.
In addition to these we also enclose some big and small chips of wood, brought by Willem de Vlamingh from the before mentioned South Land, and described in his journal under the 30th and 31st of December 1696, also 2nd of January 1697, as a kind of scented wood. Upon this we have not been able to come to any distinct decision; we have, however, had a portion of it distilled, and forward a small bottle of the oil for your examination by Commander Bichon. Likewise we send a little box containing shells, fruits, plants, etc., gathered on the coast; these specimens, however, are of less importance, and such as are to be found in a better condition elsewhere in India. So that, generally speaking, with respect to the South Land, along which, in conformity with their instructions, they have coasted, and to which their accurate observations have been devoted, nothing has been discovered but a barren, bare, desolate region; at least along the coast, and so far as they have penetrated into the interior. Neither have they met with any signs of habitation, some fires excepted, and a few black naked men, supposed to have been seen on two or three occasions at a distance; whom, however, they could neither come up with nor speak to. Neither, again, were any remarkable animals or birds observed, except principally in the Swan River, a species of black swans, three of which they brought to us alive, and should have been sent to Your Nobilities, had they not died one by one shortly after their arrival here. Neither, so far as we know, have any traces been discovered of the missing ship De Ridderschap van Holland or of other vessels, either there or at the islands Amsterdam and St. Paul. Consequently in this voyage and investigation nothing of any importance has been discovered. A singular memorial, however, was seen by them. On an island situated on or near the South Land, in 25° latitude, was found a pole, nearly decayed, but still standing upright, with a common middle-sized tin plate, which had been beaten flat and attached to the pole, and which was still lying near it. On this plate the following engraved words were still legible:—
“Anno 1616, the 25th of October, arrived here the ship De Eendraght, from Amsterdam, the upper-merchant Gilles Mibais from Luijck, Captain Dirck Hartog from Amsterdam; the 27th ditto set sail for Bantam, under-merchant Jan Hijn, upper-steersman Pieter Dockes from Bil. Anno 1616.”
This old plate, brought to us by Willem de Vlamingh, we have now handed over to the commander, in order that he might bring it to Your Nobilities, and that you may marvel how it remained there through such a number of years unaffected by air, rain, or sun. They erected on the same spot another pole, with a flat tin plate as a memorial, and wrote on it as to be read in the journals.[[30]]
And since we are desirous to afford Your Nobilities all possible information and satisfaction with respect to this voyage, we have given permission to its former chief, Captain Willem de Vlamingh the elder, with his upper-steersman Michel Blom, to return with the last return ships. As they have not come back yet from Bengal with their vessels the Geelvinch and Nijptang, but are expected daily, we shall leave this for the present and refer you for further information to their own verbal reports.
We also found recorded in the notes of the above-mentioned skipper, Willem de Vlamingh, that on the island of Mony, lying 10° south latitude and 60–70 miles without Sunda Strait, by which he steered on his way from the South Land hither, trees are to be found fit for masts of ships. No further explanation, however, being given as to their abundance or scarcity, or the kind of the wood,—a small piece only, about two spans in length and less than a finger’s breadth in thickness, having been brought to us, and the skipper of the Nijptang, and the gezaghebber of the Weseltje, son of the old Vlamingh, knowing nothing whatever about the subject, we, in order to settle the point once for all, thought it not unadvisable to set on foot a further investigation, and accordingly once more despatched the galiot Weseltje on the 11th of May, in order that a more minute survey might be taken of the island, adding at the same time a reinforcement of eight native soldiers, with such instructions for the steersman Cornelis de Vlamingh, as are to be found in the letter-book under that date, and also under Batavia. According to the diary of the same steersman from May 12 to June 17, kept in the journey, in which they nearly got wrecked, and owing to the heavy breakers could nowhere effect a landing, and from the vessel and boat could not perceive anything else but thick brushwood and a few small crooked trees, none of which was either straight or more than three fathoms long; so that no expectation remained of finding there anything useful.