Paul bowed his head.
“If you have spoken the truth about saving the lives of the true men,” said Hoogstraaten, “you have saved your own. As for you,” and he frowned at the half-drowned mutineers. “Friend Diedrich, I think I shall have to trouble you to erect a gallows for me, since I have no longer a ship or a yard-arm to hang them on!”
There were some broken pleadings from the men, but without an answer the captain turned away and in a short time we were on our march home.
We arrived the next evening much to the delight of the people, and their astonishment when they saw our batch of prisoners. Poor Vanstrooken looked very crest-fallen when he met his commander, but it was no fault of his. He and the others had been seized in their bunks and allowed no chance of resistance. As for Zolca he was furious with passion, for, fearing his desperate nature, he had been put in irons during his detention on board.
The storm had flooded the river considerably, but it soon ran down without doing any damage.
Paul’s story was confirmed by Vanstrooken. Arendsoon, who appeared to have been a second Cornelis, would certainly have made short work of his prisoners but for Paul. However, he had met his fate, and the fishes were eating him. It was no good detaining Paul a prisoner, in fact he had had little choice, having had nothing to do with originating the conspiracy, so he was restored to freedom.
The other prisoners were tried by their officers, and of course they would brook no interference from me. Hoogstraaten, however, did not hang them out of hand, as he had promised. Their punishment was to depend on their good behaviour between then and the time they reached Batavia.
As soon as the weather became somewhat calm, the captain and his men set to work to build a new boat to depart in. It was tiresome work, for they could only dismantle the wreck at low-tide, but once they got well under way they were able to employ the time of high-tide in the work of construction. As I have said the tide on this coast rises over thirty feet, so there would be ample depth to float over the reef a boat of the size they were building in Wreck Bay, as we had christened it.
In due time the boat was finished, rigged, and sailed down to our bay, to the admiration of the Quadrucos, who felt almost as though they had built it themselves. She was large enough to carry all of the survivors, and in a few weeks the captain anticipated being able to make a start. The end of the stormy season was now nearly at hand, and once the steady breeze from the south-east set in, the voyage to Batavia could be accomplished with little danger.
From Hoogstraaten, who had been on the northern coast of Terra Australis, I learnt the exact position of our settlement, and also that the whole of the great country we were on was as barren on the coast-line as the part we had travelled over. This was the reason that the Company had not established Factories. Where this great land extended to, the commander could not say, for no man had seen the eastern side of it. He had sailed much for the Company, and this was the first time that any mishap had befallen him of any consequence.