[* Left blank.]

On the 17th do. at daybreak we again weighed anchor with a northerly wind; we were now still about 2 miles from the high island and made for it.  When at noon we had got near the island we saw smoke rising up from a long island, two miles to westward of the wreck, and also from another islet [*], close to the wreck, at which we were all of us greatly rejoiced, hoping to find the greater part [**] or almost all the people alive.  Therefore, when we had come to anchor, I went in a boat to the highest island, which was quite close to us, taking with me a cask of water, a cask of bread, and a small keg of wine; when I had got there I did not see any one, at which we were greatly astonished.  I sprang ashore...

[* This islet was named Batavia’s Kerkhof [Churchyard] by the survivors; another of the rocks got the name of Robben-eiland [Seals’ island].]

[* This proved actually to be the case.  I have thought it needless to print those parts of the journal which tell the adventures of the castaways, since they have repeatedly been narrated in other works.]

On the 15th [of November, 1629] the wind was S.S.W., with seemingly fine weather.  Therefore, in the name of God, we weighed anchor and set sail from these luckless Abrolhos for the mainland on an East-north-east course, for the purpose of seeking there the skipper and four other men, who on the 14th last were with their boat cut off from ship by a storm, after which we had resolved to continue our return-voyage to Batavia with the utmost expedition.  The spot where the ship or wreck lies, is in 28 deg. 36’ or 40’, and the place near the high Island where we have been at anchor with the Yacht, in 30 or 32 minutes, north-north-west of the wreck.  But after the shipwreck the steersmen had in one of the islands taken the latitude Of 28 degrees 8 minutes, and 28 degrees 20 minutes, which mistake has caused no little loss of time and misunderstanding on our part in seeking out these places...

{Page 61}

The sea abounds in fish in these parts; they are mainly of three kinds, but very different in shape and taste from those caught on other coasts.  All the islands about here are low-lying atolls or coral-islets and rocks, except two or three large islands, in one of which, a long time before we came here, they had found two pits filled with water, but during the time we were here, the water in these pits became very brackish or salt, so as to be unfit for human consumption.  In the other island, near which the Yacht lay at anchor, after burning away the brushwood or thicket, we also came upon two pits filled with water, which were discovered quite by accident...since they had only a small hole at top, that would admit a man’s arm, but below we found a large cistern or water-tank under the earth; after which with mattocks and sledge-hammers we widened the hole so as to be able to take out the water conveniently.  Besides, we found in these islands large numbers of