[* The day following that on which the report regarding the Vergulde Draak had reached Batavia.]

[** Some of the men of the Goede Hoop had gone ashore, but had not returned.—­The Witte Valk had touched at the Southland, but by “bad weather and the hollow sea” had been compelled to return without having effected anything.]

In the Castle of Batavia, December 4, A.D. 1656.  Your Worships’ Obedt.  Servts. the Governor-General and Councillors of India JOAN MAETSUYKER, CAREL HARTZINCK, JOAN CUNAEUS, NICOLAES VERBURCH, D. STEUR.

B.

Daily Register of Batavia, 1657.

[July] the 8th.  Late in the evening there arrived in the road-stead here, and came to anchor, the small flute de Vinck of the Zealand Chamber, which had sailed [from the Netherlands] on December 24, 1656...she came hither via the Cape of Good Hope and the South-land...

The skipper further reports that, according to the order and instructions handed him by Commander [*] Riebeeck, he had touched at the South-land, but it being the bad monsoon on the said coast, they had found it impossible to sail along the coast so far {Page 76} as to look after the wreck and the men of the lost ship den Draeck; for in the night of June 8 (having the previous day seen all signs of land, and the weather being very favourable) they had come to anchor in 29 deg. 7’ S.L., and the estimated Longitude of 130 deg. 43’, in 25 fathom coarse sandy bottom mixed with coral; the following morning at daybreak they saw the breakers on the reef at the end of which they were lying at anchor, and on one side ahead of them, the South-land, which there showed as a low-lying coast with dunes; upon which they weighed anchor and continued sailing along the coast in order to keep near the land, which was still in sight the day following; but the weather began to become so much worse and the breakers on the coast were so violent, that it was a fearful sight to behold, upon which they shaped their course a little more to seaward.  On the 10th and 11th they kept sailing along the coast in 40 or 50 fathom, but seeing their chances of touching at the coast this time get less and less, and the weather continuing very unruly with violent storms of thunder and lightning, they resolved to keep off the coast, and drifted on without sail.  On the 12th they made small sail, the wind continuing to blow from the S. and S.S.W., and also from the S.S.E., and shaped their course for Batavia...

[* Of the Cape of Good Hope.]

C.

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