[* The ship 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 311/2 degrees S.L., and the estimated longitude of 117 deg., where, at about 21/2 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 God’s name be praised.  Meanwhile, in 33 deg. 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 assagays, 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 quantities 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...

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XXXI.

(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 ship sailed from Ternate in December, 1677, and arrived at Batavia “by way of Timor and thus along Nova Guinea, without passing 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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XXXII.

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