We shall now enter into a few further particulars with a view to the fuller elucidation of the subject. According to the journal of Aucke Pietersz Jonck, skipper of the galliot Emeloort, they sighted land while at a distance of four miles from the shore, on the 8th of March, at 30° 25´ south latitude, the south point lying E.S.E., and the north point N.E. by N. They also saw smoke rising towards the E.S.E. and E., whereupon they fired three guns and hoisted a large flag on the mainmast. At night a fire was again seen at N.E. by E.
On the 9th, a fire on shore was again seen and answered with a signal of three guns, and the boat was launched with a crew of nine hardy men and the steersman, provisioned for eight days; on their approach the smoke or fire disappeared, whereupon they returned on board. This fire was at a distance of two miles from the former one. Nine signal-guns were then fired from the ship, and afterwards three at night. A light was also hung aloft during the night, but no signs were observed on land.
On the 10th, the boat was again sent ashore, and a large fire again seen on the beach, at the same place as on the previous day, upon which a gun was fired every hour from the ship and a flag hoisted. About two hours elapsed before the boat could reach the shore. Fires at four different points were again seen from the ship during the night, one of which continued burning throughout the night, and several musket-shots were fired.
The boat’s crew related that they had come across three huts, and had encountered five persons of tall stature and imposing appearance, who made signs to them to approach; this, however, from distrust of their intentions, they did not venture to do. On their returning again to the boat these people followed them down to the beach, but were afraid to enter the boat. Much brushwood was seen on shore by this party, and in some places crops of growing grain which they set fire to, also portions of land under cultivation; no fruits, however, were noticed, but merely a few herbs of an agreeable smell. Further inland they saw neither fresh water nor trees, but numerous sandy downs; at night also many fires. After having gone three miles along the shore as well as inland without meeting any misadventure, they again proceeded with the ship under sail, but saw no signs of anything remarkable along the coast from latitude 33° 30´ to 30° 25´. There they went again on shore with the same result. This prolonged investigation proved altogether fruitless with regard both to the lost ship and the crew. The natives they encountered were men of stalwart frame, naked, and very dark-skinned; they wore a headdress forming a kind of crown, but with no covering on any part of their bodies except their middle. They then returned, the crew beginning to suffer very much, chiefly from sore eyes. They left the cliff Tortelduyf on the starboard side. On the 15th of March they saw many gulls, entirely black but of small size, and on the 17th, several wag-tails. On the 26th, the point Wynkoopsbergen lay to the W.N.W. of them, distant three miles. They continued to coast along at a distance of four, five, six, or seven miles, and would have again touched land had the weather permitted.
On the 14th of April they made for the west point of Java, and there fell in again with the Waeckende Boey, which had lost its boat and schuyt and fourteen men, and had got some timber from the Vergulde Draeck at 31° 15´ south latitude, without having perceived anything else.
Further, from the journal of the Waeckende Boey it appears, that having arrived on the 23rd of February 1658, at 31° 40´, they saw land at a distance of eight miles from them, bore down upon it, and found it to be an island about three miles distant from the mainland. On the 24th, they came to anchor in seventeen fathoms water and launched the boat, there being a bar between the ship and the shore. On the 25th, they still lay at 31° 20´.
On the 26th, on the return of the boat from the shore, the steersman reported many signs of the lost ship Draeck, but neither footpaths nor any places where traces of human beings had been left were discovered, notwithstanding they had been in all directions both inland and along the coast. They further reported that wood and other objects, portions of boxes, etc., a barrel, and other things had been found; also a number of pieces of plank, standing upright in a circle. Having weighed anchor they sailed along the coast, and on that occasion their schuyt was capsized and lost.
On the 27th, when about two miles from the coast, latitude 31° 14´, the boat was sent on shore, and returned with the report that nothing had been observed but a reef about ⅔ [of a mile?] off the coast seawards.
On the 28th, having arrived at 30° 40´, and several fires having been seen on land, the boat was again sent out. The steersman reported that nothing had been observed but a great smoke, and that they had been unable to land with the boat owing to the violence of the surf. Having descried the Emeloort in the offing, they returned with her.
March 2nd, at 30° 6´, the Emeloort was separated from them in the night and was lost sight of. On the 5th, they were driven by stormy weather round the south.