mber 1695 the Managers of the E.I. Company
(_Resolutions of the Heeren XVII of November 10, December 8 and 10, 1695_)
resolved to dispatch a flotilla to the South-land or the land of
d'Eendracht, this time starting from the Cape of Good Hope. Willem De
Vlamingh was appointed commander-in-chief of the expedition. He was also
instructed to inquire into the fate of the ship de Ridderschap van
Holland, which had miscarried on her voyage from the Cape to Batavia in
1694.]

A.

_Letter of the Governor-General and Councillors to the Managers of the
E.I.C. at the Amsterdam Chamber, November 30, 1697._

...As regards the results of the voyage of the three...vessels aforesaid
[de Geelvink, de Nijptang and het Wezeltje], which, pursuant to the
letters of the "Heeren XVII" of November 10, 1695, and March 16, 1696,
and in accordance with Your Worships' Instructions of April 23 of the
same year, have successfully accomplished their voyage by way of the
Tristan de Cunha Islands and the Cape of Good Hope, furthermore via the
islands of Amsterdam and St. Paulo, and along the land of d'Eendragt or
the South-land, and have arrived here in good condition as regards ships
and crews, we shall in the main beg leave to refer you to the journals
kept on board the said ships, and to their annotations, together with the
charts and a number of drawings of the said places, all which will be
handed to Your Worships by the bearer of the same, Almoner Victor
Victorszoon, who is now homeward bound in the ship Slants Welvaren. The
drawings are packed in a case to the number of 11, to wit:

7 of divers places in the South-land,
1 of the island of Tristan de Cunha,
1 of the island of Amsterdam,
1 of the island of St. Paulo, and
1 of the island of Mony [*].

[* I have not found these drawings.--In the seventeenth-century charts
Mony is South-west of Java.]

{Page 84}

We besides beg to forward to you a number of larger and smaller disks of
wood, brought over from the said South-land by skipper Willem de
Vlamingh, concerning which wood he had noted in his journal at the dates
December 30 and 31, 1696, and January 2, 1697, that it was odoriferous, a
point which we have not been able to verify here, although we have
directly ordered a small portion of it to be distilled, and beg to hand
you with the rest a small bottle of the oil thus gained for Your
Worships' examination...together with a box containing shells collected
on the beach, fruits, plant