“On Thursday, the 3rd of May, 1696, at one o’clock in the morning, the noble Burgomaster Hinlopen sent the Company’s boat, having on board the Commander Barent Fockesz, with orders that we should put to sea at daybreak.” They accordingly weighed anchor, and set sail northwards towards England.
On the result of this expedition the Governor-General and Council of India report to the Directors of the Council of Seventeen as follows:—
“For the result of the voyage of the three above-mentioned ships, which, according to the order of the Gentlemen Seventeen of the 10th of November 1695, and 16th of March 1696, and according to your instruction of the 23rd of April of the same year, have prosperously completed their journey over the islands of Tristan d’Acunha, the Cape, islands of Amsterdam and St. Paulo, and have also arrived here, both crew and vessels in a tolerably good condition, we shall principally have to refer you to their journals and notes, together with their maps and some drawings of those places; all of which, with the draughtsman himself, the overseer of the infirmary Victor Victorsz, will reach you by the ship’s Lants Welvaren; the drawings, packed up in one box, consisting of eleven pieces, viz.:—
7 of several places on the South Land.
1 of the island Tristan d’Acunha.
1 of the island Amsterdam.
1 of the island St. Paulo, and
1 of the island Mony.
In addition to these we also enclose some big and small chips of wood, brought by Willem de Vlamingh from the before mentioned South Land, and described in his journal under the 30th and 31st of December 1696, also 2nd of January 1697, as a kind of scented wood. Upon this we have not been able to come to any distinct decision; we have, however, had a portion of it distilled, and forward a small bottle of the oil for your examination by Commander Bichon. Likewise we send a little box containing shells, fruits, plants, etc., gathered on the coast; these specimens, however, are of less importance, and such as are to be found in a better condition elsewhere in India. So that, generally speaking, with respect to the South Land, along which, in conformity with their instructions, they have coasted, and to which their accurate observations have been devoted, nothing has been discovered but a barren, bare, desolate region; at least along the coast, and so far as they have penetrated into the interior. Neither have they met with any signs of habitation, some fires excepted, and a few black naked men, supposed to have been seen on two or three occasions at a distance; whom, however, they could neither come up with nor speak to. Neither, again, were any remarkable animals or birds observed, except principally in the Swan River, a species of black swans, three of which they brought to us alive, and should have been sent to Your Nobilities, had they not died one by one shortly after their arrival here. Neither, so far as we know, have any traces been discovered of the missing ship De Ridderschap van Holland or of other vessels, either there or at the islands Amsterdam and St. Paul. Consequently in this voyage and investigation nothing of any importance has been discovered. A singular memorial, however, was seen by them. On an island situated on or near the South Land, in 25° latitude, was found a pole, nearly decayed, but still standing upright, with a common middle-sized tin plate, which had been beaten flat and attached to the pole, and which was still lying near it. On this plate the following engraved words were still legible:—
“Anno 1616, the 25th of October, arrived here the ship De Eendraght, from Amsterdam, the upper-merchant Gilles Mibais from Luijck, Captain Dirck Hartog from Amsterdam; the 27th ditto set sail for Bantam, under-merchant Jan Hijn, upper-steersman Pieter Dockes from Bil. Anno 1616.”