The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 Part 23

(1658). THE s.h.i.+P ELBURG, COMMANDED BY JACOB PIETERSZOON PEEREBOOM, TOUCHES AT THE SOUTH-WEST COAST OF AUSTRALIA AND AT CAPE LEEUWIN, ON HER VOYAGE FROM THE NETHERLANDS TO BATAVIA [*].

[* The s.h.i.+p Elburg arrived at Batavia on July 16, 1658.]

_Letter of the G.-G. and Counc. to the Managers of the E.I.C., December 14, 1658._

...The flute Elburgh, Jacob Pietersz. Peereboom master, in coming hither struck the South-land in 31 degrees S.L., and the estimated longitude of 117, where, at about 2 miles' distance from the land, she was by the strong wind and the hollow sea forced to come to anchor in 22 fathom, not without great peril of being lost; but after 12 days' hard trying they at length got off again and into the open, for which G.o.d's name be praised.

Meanwhile, in 33 14' S.L., round a projecting point, they have found a good anchoring-place, where they have been at anchor in 20 fathom, and where the skipper, together with one of the steersmen, the sergeant and 6 soldiers landed round Leeuwinnen cape, finding there three black men, hung with skins like those at Cape de Bonne Esperance, with whom, however, they could not come to parley.

On the spot where the blacks had been sitting, our men found a burning fire, near which there lay a number of a.s.sagays, together with three small hammers, consisting of a wooden handle to one end of which a hard pebble was fastened by means of a kind of wax or gum, the whole strong and heavy enough to knock out a man's brains.

A little farther inward they came upon a number of huts, without any persons in them, and in various spots they found rills of fresh water, and here and there large quant.i.ties of the wax or gum aforesaid, of which we beg leave to hand you a small sample herewith, together with one of the said hammers, the wax or gum being of a red colour, and emitting an agreeable smell after being rubbed for some time...

x.x.xI.

(1678). FURTHER DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH COAST OF AUSTRALIA BY THE VLIEGENDE ZWAAN, COMMANDER VAN DER WALL, ON HER VOYAGE TERNATE TO BATAVIA, IN FEBRUARY 1678.[*]

[* The s.h.i.+p sailed from Ternate in December, 1677, and arrived at Batavia "by way of Timor and thus along Nova Guinea, without pa.s.sing through Sunda Strait" (_Letter of the G.-G. and Counc. to the Managers of the E.I.C. May 8, 1678_).]

_Chart of "the north side of the Southland and surveyed with the flute de Vliegende Zwaan in the month of February, by Jan Van Der Wall," A.D.

1678_ [*].

[* This chart is the only evidence of this voyage known to me. LEUPE, Zuidland, also, has not found anything else concerning it.]

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[Map No. 11. Kaart van de Noordzijde van 't Zuidland (Chart of the North side of the Southland), 1678]

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x.x.xII.

(1696-1697). FURTHER SURVEYINGS OF THE WEST-COAST OF AUSTRALIA BY THE s.h.i.+P GEELVINK, COMMANDED BY THE SKIPPER-COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION, WILLEM DE VLAMINGH, THE s.h.i.+P NIJPTANG UNDER GERRIT COLLAERT, AND THE s.h.i.+P HET WESELTJE, COMMANDED BY CORNELIS DE VLAMINGH. [*]

[* In November and December 1695 the Managers of the E.I. Company (_Resolutions of the Heeren XVII of November 10, December 8 and 10, 1695_) resolved to dispatch a flotilla to the South-land or the land of d'Eendracht, this time starting from the Cape of Good Hope. Willem De Vlamingh was appointed commander-in-chief of the expedition. He was also instructed to inquire into the fate of the s.h.i.+p de Ridderschap van Holland, which had miscarried on her voyage from the Cape to Batavia in 1694.]

A.

_Letter of the Governor-General and Councillors to the Managers of the E.I.C. at the Amsterdam Chamber, November 30, 1697._

...As regards the results of the voyage of the three...vessels aforesaid [de Geelvink, de Nijptang and het Wezeltje], which, pursuant to the letters of the "Heeren XVII" of November 10, 1695, and March 16, 1696, and in accordance with Your Wors.h.i.+ps' Instructions of April 23 of the same year, have successfully accomplished their voyage by way of the Tristan de Cunha Islands and the Cape of Good Hope, furthermore via the islands of Amsterdam and St. Paulo, and along the land of d'Eendragt or the South-land, and have arrived here in good condition as regards s.h.i.+ps and crews, we shall in the main beg leave to refer you to the journals kept on board the said s.h.i.+ps, and to their annotations, together with the charts and a number of drawings of the said places, all which will be handed to Your Wors.h.i.+ps by the bearer of the same, Almoner Victor Victorszoon, who is now homeward bound in the s.h.i.+p Slants Welvaren. The drawings are packed in a case to the number of 11, to wit:

7 of divers places in the South-land, 1 of the island of Tristan de Cunha, 1 of the island of Amsterdam, 1 of the island of St. Paulo, and 1 of the island of Mony [*].

[* I have not found these drawings.--In the seventeenth-century charts Mony is South-west of Java.]

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We besides beg to forward to you a number of larger and smaller disks of wood, brought over from the said South-land by skipper Willem de Vlamingh, concerning which wood he had noted in his journal at the dates December 30 and 31, 1696, and January 2, 1697, that it was odoriferous, a point which we have not been able to verify here, although we have directly ordered a small portion of it to be distilled, and beg to hand you with the rest a small bottle of the oil thus gained for Your Wors.h.i.+ps' examination...together with a box containing sh.e.l.ls collected on the beach, fruits, plants, etc., the whole, however, of little value and decidedly inferior to what elsewhere in India may be found of the same description; so that in general in this part of the South-land, which in conformity with their instructions they have diligently skirted, surveyed and observed, they have found little beyond an arid, barren and wild land, both near the sh.o.r.e and so far as they have been inland, without meeting with any human beings, though now and then they have seen fires from afar, some of the men fancying that two or three times they have seen a number of naked blacks, whom however they have never been able to come near to, or to come to parley with; nor have they found there any peculiar animals or birds, excepting that especially in the Swaene-revier [*] they have seen a species of black swans, three of which they have brought to Batavia alive, which we should have been glad to send over to Your Wors.h.i.+ps, but that shortly after their arrival here they all of them died one after another. Nor, so far as we know, have they met with any vestiges of the lost s.h.i.+p de Ridderschap van Hollant or of any other bottoms, either in those parts or near the islands of Amsterdam and St. Paulo, so that in sum nothing of any importance has been discovered in this exploratory voyage. Only, we must not omit to mention that in an island situated in 25 S.L. near or before the South-land, they have found fastened to a pole, which though half-rotten stood still erect, a common pewter dish of medium size, which had been flattened and nailed to the pole aforesaid, where they found it still hanging; the said dish bearing the following words engraved on it, still distinctly legible:

[* Opposite to the Rottenest island.]

"A.D. 1616, on the 25th of October there arrived here the s.h.i.+p den Eendragt, of Amsterdam; supercargo Gillis Miebais, of Liege; skipper Dirck Hartog, of Amsterdam; she set sail again for Bantam, on the 27th do.; subcargo Jan Steyn, upper-steersman Pieter Ledocker van Bil."

This old dish which skipper Willem de Vlaming brought us, has now likewise been handed to the Commander [*] in order to be delivered to Your Wors.h.i.+ps, who with us will no doubt stand amazed that the same has for so long a series of years been preserved in spite of its being exposed to the influence of sky, rain and sun [**].

[* Viz. of the fleet with which this letter was sent to the Netherlands.]

[* The dish would seem to be no longer extant.]

In the same spot they have again erected a new pole with a flattened pewter dish nailed to it in commemoration of their visit, having first had the following inscription engraved on the dish, as is more amply set forth in the Journals:

"A.D. 1697, on the 4th of Febr. there arrived here the s.h.i.+p de Geelvinck, skipper Willem de Vlaming, of Vlieland; a.s.sistant Joannes van Bremen, of Copenhaguen; upper-steersman Michiel Blom, of Bremen; the hooker de Nijptang, skipper Gerrit Collart, of Amsterdam; a.s.sistant Theodorus Heermans, of do.; upper-steersman Gerrit Gerrits, of Bremen; the galiot 't Weseltje, master Cornelis de Vlaming, of Vlieland; steersman Coert Gerrits, of Bremen; the whole of our flotilla sailed from here on the 12th do., in order to explore the South-land with destination for Batavia" [*]

[* This dish was afterwards brought to Paris by the French expedition, with the s.h.i.+ps l'Uranie and la Physicienne (1817-1820), (see L. DE FREYCINET, _Voyage autour du monde, sur les corvettus l'Uranie et la Physicienne_, Historique, Paris, 1825. pp. 449, 482-486) and would seem to be no longer extant there. An evidently inaccurate copy of the inscription engraved on the dish, is here reproduced on a reduced scale from _Planche 14_ of the _Atlas Historique_ accompanying De Freycinet's work.]

[Map No. 12. Opschrift op den schotel, door Willem De Vlamingh op het Zuidland achtergelaten (Inscription on the dish, left by Willem De Vlamingh at the Southland), 1697.]

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And since it is our intention, in order to let Your Wors.h.i.+ps have the more information and satisfaction touching this voyage, to dispatch to the Netherlands again in the last return-s.h.i.+ps sailing from here, the ex-leader of the expedition, Skipper Willem de Vlaming Senior, together with his upper-steersman Michiel Blom, they having not yet returned from Bengal with their s.h.i.+ps Geelvinck and Nijptang, but being expected every day, therefore we shall not trouble Your Wors.h.i.+ps with further particulars, but would beg leave to refer you to their verbal reports for ampler information touching their experiences in the said expedition...

In the Castle of Batavia, on the last day of November, 1697.

B.

_Journal kept by Skipper WILLEM DE VLAMINGH on his voyage with the s.h.i.+ps de Geelvinck, Nijptang and T'Weseltje via Trestan da Cunha, the Cape, the islands of Peter and Paul, and the South-land to Batavia, begun on May 3, 1696, and ended March 20, 1697. [*]_

[* This is the only journal of this voyage that I have found in the Old Colonial Archives at the Hague. I have not printed it here--so far as the South-land is concerned, it wil be found printed in LEUPE, Zuidland, pp.

153-184--for two reasons: 1st because it differs only slightly from a journal of the voyage printed in 1701, of which MAJOR, Terra Australis, pp 120-133 gives a translation; and 2nd, because the two charts immediately following in the text (Nos. 13 and 14) give an excellent survey of the results of this voyage of discovery.]

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C.

_Chart of the South-land, made and surveyed by Willem De Vlamingh in 1696-1697. [*]_

[* This chart was not made on the voyage, but is the work of ISAAC DE GRAAFF, cartographer to the E.I.C. from 1690 to 1714.]