B.

Instructions for Tasman 1644.

...likewise, during the same period in the years 1616, 1618, 1619 and 1622, the west coast of the great unknown South-land from 35 to 22 degrees was unexpectedly and accidentally discovered by the ships d’Eendracht, Mauritius, Amsterdam, Dordrecht and Leeuwin, coming from the Netherlands...

* * * * *

XIII.

(1622).  THE TRIALL (ENGLISH DISCOVERY).—­THE SHIP WAPEN VAN HOORN TOUCHES AT THE WEST-COAST OF AUSTRALIA.  NEW PROJECTS FOR DISCOVERY MADE BY THE SUPREME GOVERNMENT AT BATAVIA.

A.

Letter from the G.-G. and Counc. to the Managers of the E.I.C., September 6, 1622.

...On the 5th of July there arrived here [*] a boat with ten men forming part of the crew of an English ship, named the Triall, and on the 8th do. her pinnace with 36 men.  They state that they have lost and abandoned their ship with 97 men and {Page 18} the cargo she had taken in, on certain rocks situated in Latitude 20 deg. 10’ South, in the longitude of the western extremity of Java.  These rocks are near a number of broken islands, lying very far apart, South-east and North-west, at 30 miles’ distance northwest of a certain island which in our charts is laid down in 22 deg.  S. Lat. [**].  The said ship Triall ran on these rocks in the night-time in fine weather, without having seen land, and since the heavy swells caused the ship to run aground directly, so that it got filled with water, the 46 persons aforementioned put off from her in the greatest disorder with the boat and pinnace each separately, leaving 97 persons in the ship; whose fate is known to God alone.  The boat and pinnace aforesaid arrived here each separately, without knowing of each other.

[* Batavia.]

[** See, for instance, the chart of Hessel Gerritsz:  VII C (1616).]

The ship ’t Wapen van Hoorn [*] has also been in extreme peril; at night in a hard wind she got so near the land of d’Eendracht or the South-land of Java that she was in 6 fathom before they saw land, which they could noways put off from, so that they ran on it.  But shortly after the storm abating, they got the landwind, and came off safe, for which the Lord be praised.

[* She sailed from the Texel, December 22, 1621, and arrived at Batavia, July 22, 1622.]

The ships Amsterdam and Dordrecht [*] likewise got into great peril near the land just mentioned in the year 1619.  Whereas it is necessary that ships, in order to hasten their arrival, should run on an eastward course for about 1000 miles from the Cape de Bona Esperance between 40 and 30 degrees Southern Latitude, it is equally necessary that great caution should be used and the best measures taken in order to avoid such accidents as befell the English ship Triall.  They say that they met with this accident through following the course of our ships; that they intend to dissuade their countrymen from imitating their example, and that their masters are sure to take other measures accordingly.