Your Worships' faithful servants the Governor-General and Councillors of India:
CORNELIS VAN DER LIJN, F. CARON, CAREL REINIERS, J. P. VAN DUTECUM, GERARD DEMMER.
{Page 75}
XXIX. (1656-1658).
SHIPWRECK OF THE GULDEN OR VERGULDEN DRAAK ON THE WEST-COAST OF AUSTRALIA, 1656.--ATTEMPTS TO RESCUE THE SURVIVORS, 1656-1658.--FURTHER SURVEYINGS OF THE WEST-COAST BY THE SHIP DE WAKENDE BOEI, COMMANDED BY SAMUEL VOLCKERTS(ZOON), AND BY THE SHIP EMELOORD, COMMANDED BY AUCKE PIETERSZOON JONCK, 1658.
A.
Letter of the G.-G. and Counc. to the Managers of the E.I.C, December 4, 1656.
...On the 7th June there arrived here...from the South-land the cock-boat of the yacht den Vergulden Draeck with 7 men, to our great regret reporting that the said yacht had run aground on the said South-land in 30 2/3 degrees, on April the 28th, that besides the loss of her cargo, of which nothing was saved, 118 men of her crew had perished, and that 69 men who had succeeded in getting ashore, were still left there. For the purpose of rescuing these men, and of attempting to get back by divers or other means any part of the money or the merchandises that might still be recoverable, we dispatched thither on the said errand on the 8th of the said month of June [*], the flute de Witte Valeq, together with the yacht de Goede Hoop, which after staying away for some time were by violent storms forced to return without having effected anything, and without having seen any men or any signs of the wreck, although the said Goede Hoop has been on the very spot where the ship was said to have miscarried...[**]
[* The day following that on which the report regarding the Vergulde Draak had reached Batavia.]
[** Some of the men of the Goede Hoop had gone ashore, but had not returned.--The Witte Valk had touched at the Southland, but by "bad weather and the hollow sea" had been compelled to return without having effected anything.]