oral; 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._

...By our previous letters we informed Your Worships that on the first of
January last we dispatched from here to the...Southland the galiots De
Waeckende Boeij and Emeloort, for the purpose of making search for the
crew of the lost ship de Vergulden Draecq, and of ascertaining whether
they were still alive. The said ships returned to this place on the 19th
of April following, after exploring the coast about the place of the
disaster each of them for herself, since they had got separated; having
in different places sent manned boats ashore, and fired many cannon shots
time after time both by day and night, without, however, discovering any
Netherlanders or any traces of the wreck, excepting a few planks
[etc.]...which must undoubtedly be looked upon as remnants of the said
ship...We herewith hand you the journals of the galiots [*]
aforesaid...together with the small charts of the coast drawn up on board
each of them[**]...

[* See D and H _infra_]

[* See E, F and I _infra_.]

Written in Your Worships' Castle of Batavia, December 14, 1658.

* * *

JOAN MAETSUYKER, CAREL HARTSINCK, A.D. V. v. OULDTSHOORN, N. VERBURCH, D.
STEUR, PIETER STERTHEMIUS.

{Page 77}

D.

_Daily Journal kept by skipper SAMUEL VOLKERSENN on board the flute de
Waeckende Boeij, sailing in the same from Battavia to th