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

The ship De Vergulde Draeck, equipped by the Chamber of Amsterdam, having sailed on the 4th of October, 1655, from Tessel to East India, with a rich cargo, including 78,600 guilders in cash, in eight boxes, was wrecked very suddenly on the 28th of April, at night, at the beginning of the first day-watch, on the coast of the Southland, on a reef stretching out to sea about one mile and a half, latitude 30⅔°. Of one hundred and ninety-three souls only seventy-five, among whom were the skipper Pieter Aberts and the under-steersman, reached the shore alive. Nothing was saved from the ship, which foundered and sunk at once, except a small quantity of provisions washed on shore by the waves. The news was brought to Batavia by one of the ship’s boats, with the above-mentioned steersman and six sailors, after beating about for a month, on the 7th of June, with the account that the sixty-eight persons who remained behind were exerting themselves to get their boat afloat again, which lay deeply embedded in the sand, that they might send it also with some of their number to Batavia. The General and Council resolved, for the rescue both of the above-mentioned unfortunate men, and also of the Company’s specie and merchandise, to get ready without delay a quick-sailing fly-boat, the Witte Valck, provisioned for five months, with some further supplies for the above-mentioned men at the Southland; as also some expert divers, with hatchets and other necessary implements. This they ordered to join company with the yacht the Goede Hoop, then cruizing in the Straits of Sunda, with instructions that they should both proceed together without loss of time from the Straits southwards, as far as 32° or 33° latitude, or until they met a strong westerly trade-wind, in which case they would steer towards the coast of the Southland. They were, moreover, to explore the said coast with particular attention, near the part where the ship had been wrecked, further than it had been already known, and to lay it down on a map, with its capes, inlets, bays, rocks, sands, and shoals.

The Witte Valck set sail on the 8th of June, in order to join company with the yacht Goede Hoop, in the Sunda Straits. They sailed out together, but returned without having succeeded in their object; the former, on the 14th of September, and the yacht a month afterwards, having been forced by a severe storm to part company on the 18th of July, on their way out. According to the captain’s journals lying at Batavia, they had reached the coast just in the winter time, during which season the sea is so boisterous there, that an approach to the coast is a matter of extreme danger. Thus, as these documents inform us, they were compelled, after experiencing great danger and exhausting every effort, to put off from the coast and to return to Batavia, leaving behind them eleven men of the yacht Hoop, three of them having wandered too far into the woods and eight having been sent in search of them, but not one of the number returned. As the boat in which they had rowed to land was found dashed to pieces on the shore, the whole number, most probably, came to an untimely end. According to the reports which were made, some men or some signs of the wreck had been noticed, although the Goede Hoop, which had been at the place where the ship was supposed to have been wrecked, gave a different statement.

Subsequently the commander at the Cape of Good Hope, according to instructions sent to him, gave orders in the year 1657 to the fly-boat Vinck, bound thence to Batavia, to touch en passant at the same place where the above-mentioned disaster had occurred, that search might be made for the unfortunate men. But his vessel also having arrived at the unfavourable season, found no means of landing either with fly-boat or boat, so as to make a proper search. According to its reports, having, on the 8th of June, 1657, during the daytime, seen signs of land in 29° 7´ south latitude, and the weather being very favourable, they anchored at night in twenty-five fathoms water, the bottom being coarse sand mixed with coral. In the morning, when day dawned, they saw the surf breaking over the reef at the foot of which they lay, and on one side of them the Southland, presenting a low sandy shore, on which their anchor lifted. They continued their course along the coast in order to observe the land, which was still kept in sight the following day. The weather, however, became so boisterous, and the breakers rolled all along the coast with such violence, that they were compelled to put out a little further to sea, yet, throughout the 10th and 11th of June, they still followed the coast line in forty or fifty fathoms water. However, the chance of landing grew gradually less as they proceeded, for the weather continued stormy, with thunder and lightning, so that it became necessary to get clear of the coast. They allowed their ship to drive before the wind under bare poles until the 12th, when they loosened sail a little, the wind shifting between S., S.S.W., and S.S.E., and stood out towards Batavia, where they arrived on the 27th.

Notwithstanding all this, and although, as the statement of the General and Council shows, the rescue of these men seemed hopeless, since it was evident that they must either have perished from hunger and misery, or been murdered by the barbarous natives; they resolved afterwards, as there might be still some hope left, however small, to despatch, for a third time, two galliots, the Waeckende Boey and Emeloort, the former with a crew of forty, the latter of twenty-five men, provisioned for six months. They set sail from Batavia on the 1st of January, 1658, with distinct orders both as to how to reach the Southland and as to their conduct during the voyage: amongst them these; that after passing the Straits of Sunda they should steer towards the S.W., and as much further south as the wind would allow, so as to meet the S.E. trade winds, when they would proceed at once as far southwards as they could by crowding all sail until the west winds were encountered, when again they should immediately steer as much south as east, in order that, without loss of time and before encountering land, they might reach the latitude of 32° or 33°, when, directing their course eastwards, they should make the attempt to land at the Southland. It was enjoined that every possible precaution should be used, as the coast in that quarter was not much known or properly explored. It was added, that their arrival would be in summer or the most favourable season of the year; with other matters, set forth in the instructions given to them by the General and Council on the last day of December, 1657. On the 19th of April they returned to Batavia, having each of them separately, after parting company by the way, sailed backwards and forwards again and again, and landed parties at several points along the coast. They had also continually fired signal guns night and day, without, however, discovering either any Dutchmen or the wreck of the vessel. The only things seen were some few planks and blocks, with a piece of the mast, a taffrail, fragments of barrels, and other objects scattered here and there along the coast, and supposed to be remnants of the wreck. The crew of the Emeloort also saw at different points five black men of extremely tall stature, without however daring to land there. Thus of this expedition again the only result was, that the crew of the Waeckende Boey abandoned a boat with fourteen of their comrades, including the upper steersman, and that in a manner but too reckless, as it afterwards proved and as we shall presently show. The boat having been sent to land, and not returning within twenty-four hours, they concluded that it must have been dashed against the cliffs and all hands perished; the more so as, on returning to the same place five days afterwards, and firing several signal-guns landwards, no men or signs of men were seen. But from the report of four of their number who afterwards arrived at Japara by way of Mataram, it appeared that the unfortunate men, seeing themselves abandoned by their ship and finding no other resource left, resolved at last to steer for the coast of Java. Accordingly having repaired their boat, as best they might, with sealskins, and provided themselves with a little water and seals’ flesh, they set out on the 10th of April, and arrived on the 28th of the same month on the south side of that island. But of their number at that time eleven only remained, three having perished of thirst on the way, whilst four others in the first instance, and afterwards two, who had been made to swim ashore in search of water, had not returned, either from obstinacy or because they were killed by the natives. On the following day the boat was dashed to pieces on the beach by a heavy sea, when the above four men, without having met either with the seven above-mentioned or any other men, took their way westward along the coast and continued to march for two months in a very weak and exhausted condition, until they at last met with men who brought them to Mataram.

Among the number of those who returned was the upper steersman, Abraham Leeman van Santwigh. Of the remaining seven nothing more was heard.

It afterwards appeared from the diaries of the before-mentioned galliots that, notwithstanding the strong injunctions to that effect laid down in their instructions, proper care had not been taken by them to keep together, so as to render assistance to each other in case of accident, and to combine in using the most effectual means for landing and exploring the coast.

The Fiscal of India was ordered to consult further with the Council of Justice on the subject, but the General and Council were of opinion that the unfortunate men from the ship De Draeck must one and all have perished long ago, since no traces of them had been discovered throughout the whole length of the coast. Consequently all thoughts of any further special expeditions were given up, the more so as the two former ones had proved so disastrous. Orders, however, were given that any galliot or light fly-boat should seize any opportunity of touching there in favourable weather once more on their way from this country, to see if any clue to the missing men might perchance be found.

The log-books of the galliots were sent over, together with an extract from that of the fly-boat Elburgh, as far as related to the Southland, together with the small charts of the coast.