Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia: / A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.

by Richard Henry Major

Out of the castle, Batavia, this 29th day of January, 1644, signed

Antonio van Diemen, Cornelis van der Lyn, Joan Maatsüiker, Justus Schouten, and Salomon Sweers.

Southland sealed-up Commission for the Successor of the Commodore Abel Jansz Tasman, in case of his Decease.

In consideration of the uncertainty of life in the human race, and the disorders which many times arise from the loss of those in command, and to prevent as much as possible all evils, we have found good to order, as we do by this: that if the skipper, commodore Abel Jansz Tasman, upon this voyage of discovery should decease (which God forbid), the skipper of the yacht the Zeemeuw, Dirk Cornelisz Haan, shall succeed in his place, shall be acknowledged and obeyed as chief, and receive and follow this our instruction given to Tasman as given to himself.

In this case, for the service of the Company, is this our meaning and desire.

Out of the castle, Batavia, day and date as above.

THE VOYAGE AND SHIPWRECK OF CAPTAIN FRANCIS PELSART, IN THE BATAVIA, ON THE COAST OF NEW HOLLAND, AND HIS SUCCEEDING ADVENTURES.

The Directors of the East India Company, encouraged by the successful return of the five ships of General Carpenter, richly laden, caused eleven vessels to be equipped the very same year, 1628, for the same voyage: amongst which, there was one ship called the Batavia, commanded by Captain Francis Pelsart. He sailed from the Texel on the 28th of October 1628; and, as it would be tedious to the reader to give him a long account of a passage so well known as that to the Cape of Good Hope, I shall pass over in silence that portion of his journal, and content myself with observing, that on the 4th of June in the following year, 1629, this vessel, the Batavia, being separated from the fleet in a storm, was driven on some rocks which lie in the latitude of 28° south, and which are called by the Dutch the Abrolhos of Frederick Houtman. Captain Pelsart, who was sick in bed when this accident happened, perceived at once that his ship had struck. It was night, indeed; but the moon shone very brightly, and the weather was fair. He immediately ran upon deck, and found that all the sails were set; their course was north-east by north; and the sea appeared covered with a white froth as far as the eye could reach. He summoned the master, and charged him with the loss of the ship; who excused himself by saying, he had taken all the care he could; and that, having discerned the froth at a distance, he asked his shipmate, what he thought of it; who told him, that this whiteness was occasioned by the rays of the moon. The captain then asked him, what was to be done; and in what part of the world they were. The master replied, that God only knew that, and that the ship was on an unknown reef. They sounded, and found eighteen feet of water abaft, and much less foreward. They immediately agreed to throw their cannon overboard, in hopes that, when the ship was lightened, she might be brought to float again. They dropped an anchor, however; but meanwhile there arose a storm of wind and rain, which soon convinced them of the danger they were in; for, being surrounded with rocks and shoals, the ship was perpetually striking.

They then resolved to cut away the mainmast, which they did, but this increased the shock; for though they cut the mast close by the board, they could not get it clear, because it was much entangled with the rigging. They could see no land, except an island, which, as far as they could judge, was at about the distance of three leagues, and two smaller islands, or rather rocks, which lay nearer. The master was sent to examine them. He returned about nine in the morning, and reported that the sea, at high water, did not cover them; but that the coast was so rocky and full of shoals, that it would be very difficult to land upon them. They resolved, however, to run the risk, and to send most of their company on shore, to pacify the women, children, sick people, and such as were out of their wits with fear, whose cries and noise served only to disturb them. They put these on board their shallop and skiff; and about ten o’clock in the morning, they perceived that their vessel began to break. They redoubled their exertions to get up their bread upon deck, but they did not take the same care of the water, not reflecting, in the extremity of their danger, that they might be much distressed for want of it on shore; but what embarrassed them most of all was the brutal behaviour of some of the crew, who made themselves so drunk with the wine, upon which no check was now kept, that they were able to make only three trips that day, in which they landed one hundred and eighty persons, twenty barrels of bread, and some small casks of water. The master returned on board towards evening, and told the captain, that it was of no use to send more provisions on shore, for the crew only wasted those they had already. Pelsart then went in the shallop to put things into some order, and discovered that there was no water to be found upon the island. He endeavoured to return to the ship, in order to bring off a supply, together with the most valuable part of their cargo; but a storm suddenly arising, he was forced to return.

The whole of the fifth day of the month was spent in removing the water, and some of the merchandise, on shore; and afterwards, the captain in the skiff, and the master in the shallop, endeavoured to return to the vessel, but found the sea running so high, that it was impossible to get on board. In this extremity, the carpenter threw himself out of the ship, and swam to them, in order to inform them to what hardships those left in the vessel were reduced; and he was sent back, with orders for them to make rafts, by tying the planks together, and endeavour on these to reach the shallop and skiff; but before this could be done, the weather became so rough, that the captain was obliged to return, leaving, with the utmost grief, his lieutenant and seventy men on the very point of perishing on board the vessel. Those who had reached the little island were not in much better condition; for, upon taking an account of their water, they found they had not above eighty pints for forty people; and on the larger island, where there were one hundred and eighty, the stock was still less. Those who were on the little island began to murmur, and to complain of their officers, because they did not go in search of water on the neighbouring islands; and they represented the necessity of this to Captain Pelsart, who yielded to their remonstrances, but told them that before he went, he wished to communicate this resolution to the rest of the people. It was with difficulty that he gained their consent to this, for the master was afraid that the other party would keep the captain with them. At length they consented, but not till the captain had declared, that without the consent of the company on the large island that he should go in search of water, he would, rather than leave them, perish on board his ship. When he got near to the island, he who commanded the boat told the captain, that if he had anything to say, he must call out to the people; for that they would not suffer him to go out of the boat. The captain then attempted to throw himself overboard, in order to swim to the island; but he was prevented, and the order given to pull off from the shore. Thus he was obliged to return, having first left these words written on a leaf of a tablet, that he was gone in the skiff to look for water in the nearest country or islands that he could find.