ber 4,
1656._

...On the 7th June there arrived here...from the South-land the cock-boat
of the yacht den Vergulden Draeck with 7 men, to our great regret
reporting that the said yacht had run aground on the said South-land in
30 2/3 degrees, on April the 28th, that besides the loss of her cargo, of
which nothing was saved, 118 men of her crew had perished, and that 69
men who had succeeded in getting ashore, were still left there. For the
purpose of rescuing these men, and of attempting to get back by divers or
other means any part of the money or the merchandises that might still be
recoverable, we dispatched thither on the said errand on the 8th of the
said month of June [*], the flute de Witte Valeq, together with the yacht
de Goede Hoop, which after staying away for some time were by violent
storms forced to return without having effected anything, and without
having seen any men or any signs of the wreck, although the said Goede
Hoop has been on the very spot where the ship was said to have
miscarried...[**]

[* 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 c