Passing four miles beyond this cape, they anchored in a large bay, where was a plant resembling sneezwort, which they found serviceable in the scurvy; also another plant, which rendered those who eat of it distracted for a time.  They here fell in with two ships belonging to the fleet under Verhagen, which had been driven back out of the South Sea, one of which was commanded by Sebaldt de Weert, who told them he had been five months in the straits, and had only thirty-eight remaining out of 110 men, and not being able to bear up against the storms in the South Sea, had been forced to put in here, while the rest of the fleet under Verhagen held on their course.[75] These ships wished to have joined the expedition under Van Noort, but were forced to remain in the straits for want of provisions, which the others could not spare.  They afterwards got back to Holland on the 13th July, 1600.

[Footnote 75:  The voyage of Verhagen, or so much of it rather as relates to the adventures of Sebaldt de Weert, follows the present voyage of Van Noort in the Collection by Harris, vol.  I. pp. 37-44; and is, therefore, retained in the same situation on the present occasion.—­E.]

Van Noort and his ships left this bay on the 2d January, 1600, directing their course for Maurice bay, which they found to extend far to the eastwards, and to receive several rivers, the mouths of which were filled with vast quantities of ice, which seemed never to melt.  It was now near midsummer of this southern clime, and the ice was so thick that they could not find its bottom with a line of ten fathoms.  The land here seemed a congeries of broken islands, yet appearing like one continued mass, owing to the height of the mountains.  They were here much distressed by hunger and continual rains, and two of their men were slain by the savages, while gathering muscles, which formed their chief subsistence.  After weathering many storms in Meniste bay, and having several encounters with the savages, they set sail on the 17th, and were driven into Penguin bay, or Goose bay, three miles from Meniste bay, and receiving its name from the vast multitude of penguins found there.  At this place, James Claas van Ulpenda, the vice-admiral, was arraigned before a council of war, for various breaches of the articles sworn to before proceeding on the voyage.  Having a fair trial, and sufficient time allowed him for his defence, he was condemned to be turned ashore in the straits, with a small supply of provisions, and allowed to shift for himself among the wild beasts and more savage inhabitants, which sentence was accordingly executed, so that he doubtless soon fell a prey either to hunger or the natives, who are implacable enemies to all strangers.