 Section 10 of the Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Piotr Natter. The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators by Hendrik Van Loon. Chapter 7. The Attack Upon the West Coast of America. Part 1. This is the story of another expedition which tried to get possession of the Indian route by way of the Strait of Magellan. It was a sad business. Oliver van Nord, although he met with many difficulties, managed to bring one ship home and added greatly to the fame of the Dutch navigators. But the second expedition, equipped by two of the richest men of Rotterdam, and sent out under the best of auspices, proved to be a total failure. The capital of half a million guilders, which had been invested, was an absolute mess. Most of the participants in the voyage died, the ships were lost. Perhaps everything had been prepared just a trifle too carefully. Van Nord, with his little ships, knew that he had to depend upon his own energy and resourcefulness. But the captains of the five ships which left Rotterdam on the 27th of July 1598, with almost 500 men, were under the impression that half of the work had been done at home by the owners. Perhaps too, there is such a thing as luck in navigating the high seas. One fleet sails for the Indies and has good weather all the way across the ocean. When the wind blows hard, it blows from the right direction. The next squadron, which leaves two weeks later, meets with storms and suffers from one unfortunate accident after the other. Everybody gets sick, and when the sailors look for relief on land, they find nothing but a barren desert. And so it goes. It is not for us to complain, but to recite faithfully the sad adventure of the good ships, the hope, the lievde, the helov, the traue, and the bleeder butchop, all of which tried very hard to accomplish what Van Nord had been allowed to do with much less trouble. The ships, as we said, left Rotterdam in July, and after two months they reached the Cape Vert Islands. There they found a couple of ships from Hamburg for the Germans at the early period of exploring, and the discoveries were very active sailors. A few years later, however, the Thirty Years' War was to destroy their seafaring enterprises for centuries at least. Near these islands, the Hollanders had their first encounter with the Portuguese. The stories of such meetings between the early Dutch navigators and the Portuguese owners of African and Asiatic islands always read the same way. The Hollanders asked for leave to go on shore to get fresh water and to buy provisions. This leave is never granted. Then, the two parties fight each other. In most cases the Hollanders are victorious, though they still have too much respect for the traditional power of the Portuguese to risk a definite attack upon their strongholds. Very slowly and only after some years of experiments do they venture to drive the Portuguese out of their colonies and take possession of this large but badly managed empire. When our five Dutch ships reached the island of Saint Tom, they sent a messenger to the Portuguese commander and asked him please to give them some fresh water. The Portuguese told the Hollanders to wait, but they could not wait for the water on board the ship had all been used up. Therefore, they landed with 150 men and charged the hill upon which the Portuguese had built a fortress. The garrison was forced to surrender. Before any more fighting took place, the Portuguese offered to treat the Hollanders as welcome guests if they would sail to the next harbor of Santiago, where there was an abundance of stores and where general provisions were for sale at reasonable prices. This proposal was accepted. The sailors went back to their ships and made for Santiago. The wind, however, was not favorable and they did not reach their destination until the hour appointed to meet the Portuguese officials had passed. When they arrived near the shore, they noticed that the soldiers on land were very active and had placed a number of cannon in an ambush from which they could destroy the Dutch ships as soon as they should have dropped anchor. This, of course, was a breach of good faith. So back they went to their first landing place. They landed, filled or their water tanks, took the corn stored in a small storehouse, killed several Portuguese, caught a large number of turtles for the sick people on board and hoisted sail to cross the Atlantic Ocean. And then the bad luck which was to follow this expedition began. The admiral of the fleet, Jacques Baú, died suddenly of a fever and was buried at sea. Two weeks later so many men were desperately ill with the same fever that the ships were obliged to return upon their own track and establish a hospital upon one of the islands of the coast of Guinea. All this time the wind blew from the wrong direction. Then at last they saw land. They found that they were near the coast of lower Guinea. They sent a boat to the shore to discover some native tribe which owned cattle. But the natives, who feared all white men as possible slave dealers, ran into the bushes and carefully took their possessions with them. Fortunately, after a few days another Dutch ship appeared upon the horizon and the first mate of this vessel, a Frenchman by birth, knew the language of the Negroes. Through him a message was sent to the king of a small tribe and when it had been proved that the Hollanders were not slave dealers but honest merchants on their way to the Indies and willing to pay money for whatever they bought their newly elected commander, Zeibald de Weert was received in state and invited to dine with his majesty. This dinner, much to the regret of the hungry guests was a poor affair. Their chieftain tried to be very civil to his guests. In their honor he had powdered himself white with the ashes of a wood fire but the food was neither abundant nor very good. The Hollanders decided to invite his majesty to one of their own dinners as a good example and a hint. From among the few supplies which were left on board they arranged so excellent a dinner that his royal highness had everything on the table and then fell fast asleep in his chair. But when the next day the Hollanders tried to buy the fresh provisions which they expected to get they found that the domains of the king produced nothing but one single goat, a lean goat at that and four puny chickens. The coast of Guinea, sometimes called dry gallows gets its agreeable reputation from the fact that the malaria fevers of this swampy region usually kill all the white people who venture to settle there. The new commander of the expedition caught this malaria and was sick in his bed for over two months. Sixteen of his sailors died and finally the expedition was obliged to flee to the healthy islands which of course belonged to the Portuguese. Early in December they sailed toward Anabón. Once again the Portuguese refused them both water and food. A troop of men were landed to take by force what they could not obtain through an appeal to Christian charity. The Portuguese did not await this attack but surrendered their fortress and fled toward the mountains. From there they arranged sniping expeditions which killed many Hollanders. As a punishment Admiral de Verde burned the white settlements and the church. He took all the provisions which were stored in the little town and on the 2nd of January of the year 1599 he tried once more to cross the Atlantic Ocean. This time the wind was favorable. Soon the ships had passed out of the hot equatorial regions. The sailors who had suffered from scurvy and malaria began to feel better in the colder climate of the Argentinian coast. They recovered so fast and they had such a great appetite after their long enforced fast that many of them threatened to die from overfeeding. And one poor fellow who was so hungry that he stole bread at night from the ship's pantry was publicly hanged to stop further theft of the meager supplies. When the ships were near the coast of South America things went wrong once more. First of all the sailors were frightened by the sudden appearance of what they supposed to be bled upon the surface of the ocean. As far as the eye could reach the water was a dark red color. This phenomenon however proved to be caused by billions of little plants. They made the water look quite horrible but they were entirely harmless. A few days later one of the men, an Englishman while at dinner suddenly uttered a dreadful scream and fell backward dead. The next day another one of the sailors suddenly became insane and tried to scratch and bite everybody who came near him. After three days his condition improved somewhat but he never recovered his reason. When he was put to bed at night he would not allow himself to be covered up. One very cold night both his feet were frozen and had to be amputated. This was the end of the poor fellow. He did not survive the operation. It was a sad expedition which had last reached the Strait of Magellan on the 6th of April of the year 1599. Happily the weather near Strait was fine. There was plenty of fresh water on the shore. The men killed hundreds of birds, caught geese and ducks and found a large supply of oysters. But when finally the day came on which they tried to enter the Strait the wind suddenly veered around and during four months the ships were forced to stay in their little harbor. They had enough to eat and they had found wood to keep warm but much valuable time was lost and when the winter at last came upon them with sudden violence they were entirely unprepared for it. The reports of the expeditions of Magellan and Drake and Cavendish had shown that an expedition around the world was apt to suffer from too much heat but rarely from too much cold. Except for the few miles of the Strait of Magellan the ships sailed in tropical or semi-tropical regions all the time. Therefore the Dutch ships had not brought any heavy clothes or fares which would have taken up a lot of room and the food which had been put up for them in Holland had been prepared with the idea of supporting men who did their work under a blazing sun. When they were obliged to live for a long time in a raw, cold climate and work hard hunting and fishing and gathering food amid snow and icy winds the sailors did not get sufficient nourishment. From sheer misery and exposure 120 men died within less than four months. Among them was the captain of the Traue. He was the second officer to perish before his ship had reached the Pacific Ocean. But illness was not the only enemy of this expedition. The natives of the south coast joined the terrible climate in its attack upon the Hollanders. They murdered the Dutch sailors when these had gone on shore to look for firewood or to examine their traps. They killed several men and they had wounded more. Being wounded was almost as bad as being killed outright for the spears of the natives were made with nasty barbs which caused very bad wounds. When they had once penetrated into a man's arm or hand the only way to get them out successfully was by pushing them through until they came out again at the other side or cut away all the flesh. In both cases a very painful operation. At last, on the 20th of August the wind turned and the ships were able to enter the strait. The joy of demand did not last very long. The next day there was no wind at all and once more the fleet anchored. To keep his few remaining men busy the commander arranged an expedition on shore. It was the first time that the Dutch fleet had been in this part of the world and the event must be properly celebrated. A high pole was planted in a conspicuous spot on shore and the adventures of the expedition and the names of the leaders were carved on the pole. Near this pole a small cemetery was made where two sailors who had died the night before were buried. In the evening all went back to their ships. When they returned the next morning they found that the natives had hacked the monument to pieces and the corpses of the dead Hollanders had been dug out of the earth and had been cut into little bits and were spread all over the shore. This humiliating experience was the last one which they suffered in the strait. The wind at last turned to their advantage and on the third of September the ships reached the Pacific Ocean. The good weather lasted just seven days. A week later, in the night of the 10th of September a severe storm attacked the little fleet and the next morning the ships had lost sight of one another. They came together after a short search but during the next night there was another gale and in the morning three of the five ships had disappeared. Only the Traue and the Helov were apparently saved. During three weeks these two ships floated aimlessly about driven hither and dither upon the angry waves of the Pacific Ocean. They had few supplies left and they could not repair the damage that was done to their masts because both ships had sent their carpenters to one of the other vessels which had been in need of a general overhauling in what was now lost. A month went by and then they discovered that they had been driven back into the strait. The admiral discussed the situation with his chief officers. Did they advise going back to Holland without having accomplished anything or would they keep on? The sailors all wanted to return to Holland. They did not have any faith left in the results of this unhappy voyage. Many of them were ill. Others pretended that they were too weak to work. Others murmured about a lack of provisions. There was ground for the stock. The supply room was getting emptier and emptier in a very mysterious way. At last the admiral decided to investigate this strange case. He discovered that an unknown member of the crew possessed a key to the bread boxes and stuffed himself every night while his comrades were kept on short rations. It was a gross breach of discipline. Apparently the expedition was going from bad to worse. On the afternoon of the 10th of December admiral de Verth paid a call to the trouwe to talk over the situation. The next morning the trouwe had disappeared. De Verth never saw her again. He was all alone and his safe return depended upon his own unaided efforts. His first duty was to get enough food. On a certain Sunday afternoon the few men of his ship who could still walk were on shore looking for things to eat when they had an encounter with a large number of natives who had just arrived in three canoes. The natives fled and hid themselves among the cliffs. One woman and two small babies could not get away and were brought back to the ship. The woman was kept a prisoner for 48 hours while the Hollanders studied the habits and customs of the wild people of Tierra del Fuego. The subject of their study refused to eat cooked food, but dead birds which were thrown to her she ate as if she had been a wild animal. The children did the same thing tearing at the feathers with their sharp teeth. After two days the mother and one of the children were sent back to the shore with a number of presents. The other child was kept on board and was taken back to Holland where it died immediately after arrival. On the 16th of December a last attempt was made to find the trouwe. A blank cartridge was fired and a few minutes later a distant answer was heard. Soon a ship came sailing around a nearby Cape. It was not the trouwe, but the ship of Oliver Van Nort who at the head of his expedition had just entered upon the last stretch of his voyage through the strait. Van Nort had a story to tell of a fairly successful voyage plenty to eat and little illness. The hungry man of the Werd looked with envy at the happy faces of Van Nort sailors. The latter had just caught several thousand penguins on a little island not far away. The starving crew of the hell off asked that they be allowed to sail to this island and catch whatever Van Nort had left alive. The Werd however refused this request. Here was his last chance to get to the Indies in the company of the squadron of Van Nort and he meant to take it. The next morning he joined the new ships on their westward course. But his sailors, weak and miserable, after more than a year of illness could not obey their captain's commands as fast as those who were on the other ships. Soon the hell off was left behind. The next morning when Van Nort entered the Pacific the Werd was helplessly blown back into the strait. It seemed impossible to do more than he had tried to accomplish against such great odds. He called all his remaining sailors together to hear what they wanted him to do. They all had just one wish to get home as fast as possible by way of Brazil and Africa. The Pacific, so they argued, offered nothing but disappointment. The Werd promised to give his final decision on the next day which was the first of January of the year 1600. When the morning came he found himself once more in the company of other ships. Van Nort had reached the Pacific but the western storms had been too much for his strong ships. The second time the Hollanders were all united in a cold little harbor inside the strait of Magellan. Van Nort now paid a personal visit to the Werd and asked what he could do to help him. The Werd was much obliged for this offer and asked for bread enough to last him another four months. Unfortunately Van Nort could not do this. He had still a very long voyage before him and did not dare to deprive his own men of their supplies. He advised the Werd to go to the island of the penguins and to fill his storeroom with the dried meat of these birds. Meanwhile, much to his regret he must leave the Werd as soon as possible for he was in a hurry. The next day they said farewell to one another for the last time. The Werd took the precautions to leave instructions for the captain of the lost traue. He wrote a letter which was placed inside a bottle and this bottle was buried at the foot of a high tree. On the tree itself a board was hammered and on this board a message was painted telling in Dutch where to look for an important document at the foot of the tree. Then the ship sailed to the penguin island and the thirty men who could do any work at all hunted the fat and lazy birds until they had killed several thousand. It was easy work. The penguins obligingly waited on their nests until they were killed. But the trip to the island almost destroyed the entire expedition. There was only one boat left and in this boat the men who were not sick had rowed to the shore. They had been careless in fastening her and a sudden squall caught her and threw her on the rocks. She was badly damaged and could not be used without being repaired. But the men on shore had no tools with which to do any repairing while those on the ship were so ill that they could not swim and carry hammers and saws. Two entire days were used to get that boat into order with the help of one ox and some pocket knives and during those two days the men lived out in the open on the cold shore and lived on raw penguin meat. End of section 10 Section 11 of the Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Piotr Natter The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators by Hendrik van Loon. Chapter 7 The Attack upon the West Coast of America Part 2 The island, among other things contained material evidences of van Noord's presence. A dead native with his hands tied behind his back was found stretched out upon the sand. In a little hollow in the rocks he discovered a woman who had been wounded by a gunshot. They took good care of the woman, bandaged her wounds and gave her a pocket knife. To show her gratitude she told de Verth of another island where there were even more penguins. The next week was spent on this island and now the men had plenty of food. But the ship was without a single anchor and had only one leaking live boat. With the certainty that he could not land anywhere unless boats were sent to him from shore, de Verth decided to return to the coast of Guinea and try to reach home. On the 18th of January the hell-off went back upon her truck. Two months later the vessel reached the coast of Guinea. This trip back was not very eventful except for one small incident. One of the sailors who was a drunkard had broken into the storeroom and had stolen a lot of rice and several bottles of wine. Theft was one of the things which was punished most severely. Therefore the man had been condemned to death and was to be hanged. But while he was sitting in the rigging and waiting for somebody to push him into eternity the other members of the crew felt sorry for him and asked their captain to spare his life. At first he refused but finally he agreed to show clemency if the man would never bother him again with a similar request. The prisoner was allowed to come down by a perch and to show his gratitude he broke again into the storeroom that same night. He was a very bad example as such he was hanged from the yardarm of the highest mast and his body was dropped into the sea. The crew however was so thoroughly demoralized by this time that even such drastic measures did no good. They continued to pillage the storeroom and when at last four of them had been detected and had been found guilty their comrades were so weak that nobody could be found to hang the prisoners properly and they had to be taken home. In July of the year 1600 the hell-off reached the English Channel and on the thirteenth of that month she entered the mouth of the mast. There, within sight of home one more sailor died. He was number 69. Only 36 men came back to Rotterdam. They were ill and had a story to tell of constant hardships and of terrible disappointments. A great expedition of the two courageous merchants and all their investments were a complete loss. None of the other ships ever came back to Holland. But year after year stragglers from the other four ships reached home and told of the fate of the other 300 sailors who had taken part in the unfortunate voyage. Some of these reports have come down to us and we are able to give a short account of the adventures of each ship after that day early in the year 1600 when the Pacific storms had separated them from one another. First of all there was the Traue which had remained faithful to the verve after the other three vessels had disappeared. The wind had blown the Traue out of the strait into the Pacific Ocean. For many weeks her captain had lost all track of his whereabouts. Through sheer luck he had at last reached a coast which he supposed to be the continent of South America and after a search of a few days he had found some natives who were friendly. The natives told the Hollanders that this was not the American continent but an island called Chiloe situated a few miles of the Chilean coast. The Dutch ships had been made welcome. They were invited to stay in the harbor as long as they wished. Meanwhile the natives told their captain about a plan of their own which undoubtedly would please him. It seemed that the inhabitants of Chiloe had good reason to hate the Spaniards who were mighty on the nearby continent and who recently had built a strong fort on the island from which they exercised their tyrannical rule over all the natives and made them pay very heavy tribute. Perhaps, so the natives argued the Hollanders could be induced to give their assistance in a campaign against the Spaniard. The Cordes, who commanded the Traue was a Catholic but he was quite ready to offer his services in so good cause and he was delighted to start a little private war of his own upon the Spaniards. He made ready to sail for that part of the coast where, according to his informants the Spaniard had fortified himself. Meanwhile the natives were to proceed on shore toward the same Spanish fortress. An attack was to follow simultaneously from the land and the sea. On the way to the fortress all Spanish houses and plantations, storerooms and churches were down and at last the fortress itself was reached. The commander of the fortress, however, had heard of the approach of this handful of Hollanders and he sent them an insulting message telling them that he needed a new stable boy anyway and would bestow this high office upon the Dutch captain as soon as he could have the necessary arrangements made. But when the Dutch captain actually appeared upon the scene with a well armed vessel and a band of native auxiliaries and informed the Spaniards that the new stable boy had come to take possession of his domain, the commander changed his mind and offered the Hollanders whatever they wished if they would only leave him alone. The Cordes, however, attacked the fort at once. He took it and the garrison was locked up in the church as prisoners. Then the Chilean natives in their rage attacked the church and killed several of the Spaniards. This was not what the Cordes wanted to be done. He did not mind if a Hollander killed a Spaniard but it did not look well for one white man to allow a native to kill another while he himself stood by. Therefore he returned their arms to the Spaniards and together they then drove the natives away. When the natives, however, told the Dutch sailors that the fort contained hidden treasures of which the Spaniards had made no mention the former allies attacked each other for the second time and the Spanish prisoners were sent on board the Dutch ship. The story which we possess of this episode of the voyage is not very clear. It was written many years later by one of the few sailors who came back to Holland. His account of these adventures was so badly printed and the spelling of the original pamphlet was so extraordinary that a second scribe was later hired to turn the booklet into more or less readable Dutch. The present translation has been made from this second version. Everything is a bit mixed and it is not easy to find out what really happened. A common and ignorant sailor of the year 1600 was not very different from the same sort of fellow who at present is fighting in the European war. They both remember events in chunks, so to speak. They have very vivid impressions of a few occurrences, but they have forgotten other things of more importance because at the time these did not strike their unobservant brains as being of any special interests. But we have no other account of the adventures of the trouwe. We must use this information such as it is. The booty found in this small settlement had not been of great value. The expedition felt inclined to move toward a richer port. They did not have food enough for their prisoners, and 14 of the 19 Spaniards who were locked up in the hold were thrown overboard. This sounds very cruel, but it was the custom of the time that these two nations rarely give each other quarter. Whosoever was made a prisoner was killed. The Spaniards started this practice in the middle of the 16th century because the Hollanders, as heretics, deserved no better fate. The Hollanders reciprocated. On this distant island of the Pacific both parties obeyed the unwritten law. The Hollanders drowned their prisoners. When Spanish reinforcements reached Chiloé and retook the fort, they killed the Dutch garrison, for such was the custom of the time. The trouwe, after this famous exploit was in a difficult position, all alone in the heart of the Pacific with enemies on every side and a bad conscience. The idea of attacking some other Spanish harbor in Chile and Peru was given up as too dangerous. Near the harbor of Trujillo a Spanish ship loaded with grain wine was captured and provided with new supplies the Cordes decided to risk the trip across the Pacific. On the 3rd of January 1601 he reached Ternate in the Indies where Van Nort had been the year before and where they found a Dutch settlement commanded by the same van der Does whose account of how the first trip to India we have given in the fourth chapter of this little book. Van der Does warned the Cordes not to visit the next island of Tidore. There were only 24 Hollanders left on board the trouwe. It was too dangerous to visit an unfriendly Portuguese colony with a damaged ship and so small a crew. But the Cordes, who seemed to have been a reckless sort of person, went to Tidore all the same. Much to his surprise he was very cordially received by the commander of the Portuguese garrison and the governor of the town. They both assured him that he might trade in their colony as much as he wished. If however he would let them know what he wished to buy, they would give orders that provisions and a cargo of spice should be got ready for their distinguished visitors. They invited him to come on shore the next morning. They wanted to make him a present of an ox for the benefit of his hungry crew and entertain him personally, and then, after a few more days, further arrangements for the purpose of a mutually profitable trade might be made. The next morning the Dutch captain and six men went ashore to get their ox. The ship itself was left in the care of the first mate. Soon a Portuguese boat rode out to the Traue and asked the mate to come on shore too and have breakfast with his Portuguese colleagues. The mate was suspicious and refused the invitation. He suggested that the Portuguese officer come on board the Traue and breakfast with him. But the officer said that he was too heavy a man to climb on board so high a ship, and he did not care to take this exercise so early in the morning. So the mate left the ship, together with the ship's carpenter, to see what a Portuguese kitchen served for breakfast. The moment the two men landed, a loud outcry was heard from the Traue. The mate at once jumped into the sea and looked for his comrade. The carpenter was dead, and his head, hacked from his body, was used by the Portuguese. The mate swam out to the ship, but when he reached it, he found that the Portuguese had jumped on board the moment he had left for his breakfast party. He swam back to the shore, was made a prisoner, and was locked up in the fortress. With six other men he escaped to general murder, which had taken place as soon as he landed. The Cortes himself had been killed with a dagger. The six men who had accompanied him on shore had heard the noise of the attack upon the Traue, and had rode away from shore in a boat, trying to get back to their vessel. But the Traue was already in the hands of the Portuguese, and since the Hollanders had no arms, they surrendered after the Portuguese had given their oath not to hurt them and to spare their lives. They were taken on board a Portuguese ship. As soon as they were on deck they had been placed in a row, and a soldier had been ordered to take his sword and hug their heads off. He had killed four men, when the other two managed to jump overboard. One of these was drowned, the other was fished out of the water, and was sent to the fortress with the mate and five sailors, who had put up such a desperate fight on board the Traue, that the Portuguese had promised to treat them with clemency if only they would surrender. The six men were afterwards taken to Goa. Gradually one after the other they had managed to escape and find their way back to Holland. Two of them returned to Rotterdam in the autumn of 1603, another one we find mentioned in later years as commander of an Indian trader. As for the Traue Van Neck, on his second voyage to India, found the vessel being used by the Portuguese as a man of war. Of the other ships the Bleed-a-Butzup also had a very sad career and met with extraordinary adventures. This small vessel was commanded by a certain Dirk Geritz, a native of Enghuizen, a fellow citizen of Linschoten. As a matter of fact the two men had heard of each other many years before. While Linschoten was in Goa he was told of a Hollander who was a native of his own city and who had travelled not only in the Indies, but who also had visited Japan and China. We know very little of the man. Some information of his travels in Asia have been printed in a general handbook of navigation of that time, though he did not follow Linschoten's example and print a full account of his adventures. When the city of Rotterdam sent this expedition to the Strait of Magellan, Dirk Geritz had been engaged as first mate of the Bleed-a-Butzup. When her captain died he had succeeded him. The ship of Geritz had suffered from the same storm which had driven the Traue out of her course. An attempt had been made to reach the island of Santa Maria but the maps on board proved to be faulty and the little island could not be found. With only provisions enough for another week Geritz had finally reached the harbour of Valparaiso. Of his original crew of 56 men 23 were left and of these only dine were strong enough to sail the ship. Therefore he had been forced to surrender himself and his vessel to the Spaniards. The Dutch sailors were forced to take service in the Spanish Navy. From that moment on we lose sight of all of them. A few reached home after many years of strange adventure. Others died in the Spanish service. Of the fate of the ship we know nothing. As for Dirk Geritz rumor has it that he found his way back to Anquizen. There were two other ships, the Hope and the Lievde. Of these the Lievde had reached Santa Maria and after leaving the island had landed at Punta La Pavia where an attempt had been made to find fresh water. Unfortunately the captain and 23 of his men had been murdered by natives who mistook them for Spaniards and had carried their heads in triumph to the Spanish town of Concepción where they were shown to the garrison as a promise of what was in store for them should the settlement ever fall into the hands of the enraged native population. The rest of the sailors had saved their ship by fleeing Santa Maria where they met the Hope. The Hope had suffered a similar calamity. Her captain and 27 of his men had been murdered on another island. Of the officers of both ships hardly a single one was still alive. New officers were elected from among the men and the ships continued their northward course apparently without a definite idea of what they intended to do. They could not go back through the straight and they were obliged to cross the Pacific. They decided to avoid all Spanish and Portuguese settlements and to make for Japan where they might be able to sell their cargo and where a peaceful couple of ships might find it possible to do some honest trading without being attacked by wild natives or lying Spaniards. On the 27th of November the island of Santa Maria was left and soon the ships passed the equator. They kept near the land and lost eight more of their men who had gone to the shore to get fresh water and were attacked by the natives. On the 23rd of February during a gale the ships were separated from each other. The lievda was obliged to make the voyage to Japan alone. On the 24th of March of the year 1600 the first Japanese island was reached. The people of Japan were very kind hearted and very obliging. The sick hollanders were allowed to come on shore and the others could trade as much as they liked. But Japan for many years had been a field of successful activities for Portuguese Jesuits. These Jesuits smiled pleasantly upon the Dutch visitors but to the Japanese they hinted that the hollanders were pirates and could not be trusted. Holland was not a country at all and these men were all robbers and thieves. They advised the Japanese authorities to let these dangerous people starve for the same thing. But the news of the arrival of some strange ships had reached the ears of the emperor of Japan. He sent for some of the crew to come to his court. An Englishman among the sailors by the name of William Adams was chosen for this dangerous mission. He not only represented to his imperial majesty the sad state of affairs among the shipwrecked hollanders but he made himself so useful at the imperial court that he was asked to remain behind and serve the Japanese state. He had a wife and children at home in England but he liked this new country so well that he decided to stay. He lived happily for 20 years, married a Japanese woman and when he died in 1620 divided his fortune equally among his Japanese and his English families. Without the assistance of Adams who seems to have been the leader of the remaining sailors of the Lievde it was impossible to accomplish anything with the big ship. Of the 24 men who had reached Japan only 18 were left. The ship therefore was deserted and all the men went on shore. Except for two, the others all disappeared from view. They probably settled down in Japan but in the year 1605 in the month of December two hollanders came to the Dutch settlement of Patani on the Indian Peninsula. They had made the voyage from Japan to India on a Japanese ship and they brought to the Dutch company trading in that region an official invitation from the Emperor of Japan asking them to come and enter into honorable commerce with the Japanese islands. This invitation was accepted. In the year 1608 one of the two Dutch messengers returned to Japan with letters announcing arrival of a Dutch fleet for the next summer. He continued to live in Japan until his death in 1634. The other sailor found a chance to go back to Holland on a Dutch ship but near home he was killed in a quarrel with some Portuguese. The net result of this unfortunate voyage of the Lievde was the establishment of a very useful trade relation with Japan a relation which became more important after the Portuguese had been expelled and which lasted for over two centuries. Finally there was the ship called the Hope which had become separated from the Lievde on the coast of South America in February of the year 1600. It went down to the bottom of the ocean with everybody on board. End of section 11. Section 12 of The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Avae September 2019 The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators by Hendrik van Loon Chapter 8 The Bad Luck of Captain Bontecoe Captain Bontecoe was a pious man who sailed the ocean in command of several Dutch ships during the early part of the 17th century. He never did anything remarkable as a navigator. He never discovered a new continent or a new straight or even a new species of bird. But he was blown up with his ship, flew heavenward landed in the ocean and survived this experience to tell a tale of such harrowing bad luck that the compassionate world read his story for over three centuries with tearful eyes. Wherefore we shall copy as much as is desirable from his famous diary which was published in the year 1647. On the 28th of December of the year 1618 William Isbrand Bontecoe with a ship of 550 ton and 206 men left the roads of Thessal for India. The name of the vessel was the New Horn and it was loaded with gunpowder. Kindly remember that gunpowder. There were the usual storms, the usual broken masts, the customary number of sick sailors either died or recovered. The customary route along the coast of Africa was followed. The weather, once the cape was left behind, was fine and the short stay on the island of Réunion allowed the sick to regain their health and the dead to be buried. The natives were well disposed and traded with Bontecoe. They entertained him and danced for the amusement of his men and everything was as happy as could be. At last the voyage across the Indian Ocean was started under the best of auspices and the New Horn had almost reached the Strait of Sunda when the great calamity occurred. On the 19th of November almost a year therefore after the ship had left Holland one of the pantry men went into the hold to get himself some brandy. He had taken a candle in the hold and therefore he had taken a candle with him. This candle in a short iron holder with a sharp point to it he stuck into a barrel which was on top of the one out of which he filled his bottle. When he got through with his job he jerked the iron candlestick out of the wood of the barrel. In doing so a small piece of burning tallow fell into the brandy. That caused an explosion and the next moment the brandy inside the barrel had caught fire. Fortunately there were two pales of water standing nearby and the fire was easily extinguished. A lot more water was pumped upon the dangerous barrels and the fire as far as anybody could see or smell had been put out. But half an hour later the dreadful cry of fire was heard once more all through the ship. This time the coals which were in the hold near the brandy and which were used for the kitchen stove and the blacksmith shop had caught fire. They filled the hold with poisonous gas and a thick and yellowish smoke. For the second time the pumps were set to work to fill the hold with water. But the air inside the hold was so bad that the fireman had a difficult task. As the hours went by the fire grew worse. Bontaku proposed to throw his cargo of gunpowder overboard. But as I have related in my first chapters there always was a civilian commander on board such Indian vessels. It was his duty to look after the cargo and to represent the commercial interest of the company. Bontaku's civilian master did not wish to lose his valuable gunpowder. He told the captain to leave it where it was and try to put out the fire. Bontaku obeyed but soon his men could no longer stand the smoke in the hold. Large holes were then hacked through the deck and through these water was poured upon the cargo. Now Bontaku was a pious man but he was neither very strong of character nor very resourceful of mind. He spent his time in running about the ship giving many orders the majority of which were to no great purpose. Meanwhile he did not notice that the crew from fear of being blown up had lowered the boats and were getting ready to leave the ship. The civilian director who had just told the captain to save the gunpowder had been the first to join in the flight. He was soon safely riding the waves in a small boat far away from the doomed ship. For those who had been deserted on board there was only one way to salvation. They must try to put out the fire to be killed. Under personal command of their captain they set to work and pumped and pumped and pumped but the fire had reached several barrels of oil and there was a dense smoke. It was impossible to throw 310 barrels of powder overboard in the suffocating atmosphere of the hold yet the men tried to do it. They worked with desperate speed but before the sixth part when the water was in the waters of the ocean the fire reached the forward part where the powder was stored. A few moments later 190 men were blown skyward together with pieces of the masts and pieces of the ship and heavy iron bars and pieces of sail and everything that belongs to a well-equipped vessel. And I, captain William Isprans Ponticou commander of the ship flew through the sky and I thought that my end had come so I stretched my hands and arms toward heaven and said O dear Lord, there I go please have pity upon this miserable sinner because I thought that now the next moment I must be dead but all the time I was flying through the air I kept my mind clear and I found that there was happiness in my heart. Yes, I even found that I was quite gay and so came down again and landed in the water between pieces of the ship which had been blown into little scraps. This is the captain's own minute account of the psychology of being blown up. He continues and when I was now once in the water of the sea I felt my courage to return in such a way that it was as if I had become a new man and when I looked around I found a piece of the thin mast floating at my side and so I climbed on top of it and looking over the scene around me I said O Lord, so hath this fine ship been destroyed even as Sodom and Gomorrah. For a short while the skipper floated and contemplated upon his mast and then he noticed that he was no longer alone. A young German who had been on board as a common sailor came swimming to the wreckage. He climbed on the only piece of the ship's stern that was afloat and pulling the captain's mast nearer to him with a long stick which he had fished out of the water he helped our good Bontaku to pull himself on board his wreckage. There they were together on the lonely ocean on a few boards and with no prospect of rescue. Both the boats were far away and showed themselves only as small black dots upon the distant horizon. Bontaku told his comrade to pray with him. For a long time they whispered their supplications to heaven. Then they looked once more to see what the boats were doing and behold their prayer had been answered. The boats came rowing back as fast as they could. When they saw the two men they tried to reach the wreckage but they did not dare to come too near for their heavily loaded boats ran the risk of being thrown against the hull. In that case they would have been swamped. Bontaku had felt very happy as long as he had been up in the air. Now however he began to notice that he had hurt his back badly and that he had been wounded in the hit. He did not dare to swim to the boats but the bugler of the ship who was in the first boat swam back to the wreckage fastened a rope around Bontaku's waist and in this fashion the commander was pulled safely on board where he was made as comfortable as could be. During the night the two boats remained near the place of the misfortune because they hoped that they might find a few things to eat in the morning. They had only a little bread and no water at all. Meanwhile the exhausted skipper slept and when in the morning his men told him that they had nothing to eat he was very angry. For the day before the sea around his mast had been full of all sorts of boxes and barrels and there had been enough to eat for everybody. During the night however the boats had been blown away from the wreckage by the wind. There was no chance to get anything at all. Eight pounds of bread made up the total amount of provisions for seventy strong men. Of these there were 46 in one and 26 in the second boat. Part of that bread was used by the ship's doctor to make a plaster for Bontoku's wounds. With the help of a pillow which had been found in the locker of the biggest boat and which he wore around his head Bontoku was then partly restored to life and he took command of his squadron and decided what ought to be done. There were masts in the boat but the sails had been forgotten. Therefore he ordered the men to give up their shirts. Out of these two large sails were made. They were primitive sails but they caught debris and with the help of the western wind Bontoku hoped to reach the coast of Sumatra which according to the best guess of all those on board must be 70 miles to the east. All those who had the map of that part of India fairly well in their heads were consulted and upon a piece of wood a chart of the coast of Sumatra the Sundar islands and the west coast of Java was neatly engraved with the help of a nail and a pocket knife. A few simple instruments were cut out of old planks and the curious expedition was ready to navigate further eastward. Fortunately it rained very hard during the first night. The sails made out of shirts were used to catch the rain and the water was carefully saved in two small empty barrels which had been found in one of the two boats. A drinking cup was cut out of a wooden stopper and each of the sailors in turn got a few drops of water. For many hours they sailed and they became dreadfully hungry. Again a merciful heaven came to their assistance. A number of seagulls came flying around the boats and many of them ventured so near that they seemed to say please catch us. Of course they were caught and killed and although there was no way of cooking them they were eaten by the hungry men as fast as they came. But a seagull is not a very fat bird and again there was hunger and not yet any sight of land. The big boat was a good sailor but the small one could not keep up with her. Therefore the men in the small boat asked that they might be taken on board the big one so that they might either perish together or all be saved. The sailors in the small boat did not like the idea. They feared that their boat could not hold all of the 76 men. After a while however they gave in. The men from the small boat were taken on board. Out of the extra oars a sort of deck was rigged up on top of the boat and under this a number of the men were allowed to sleep while the others sat on top and looked for land or prayed for food and water. No further seagulls came to feed this forlorn expedition but just when they were so hungry that they could not stand it any longer large shoals of flying fish suddenly jumped out of the water into the boats. Again the men were saved. The two little barrels of water had been emptied by this time. For the second time the men expected that they would all perish. They sailed eastward but they saw no land and finally they got so hungry that they talked about killing the cabin boy and eating him. Bontoku asked them please not to do it and he prayed the good lord not to allow this horrible thing to happen. The men however said that they were very hungry and must have something to eat. Then he asked that they should wait just three days more. If no land was seen after three days they might eat the cabin boy. On the thirteenth day after the explosion there was a severe thunderstorm and the barrels were filled with fresh water. Most of the men then crept under the little cover to be out of the rain and only one of the mates was left on deck. It was very hazy but when the fog parted for a moment he saw land very near the boat. The next morning the survivors reached an uninhabited island where there was no fresh water but an abundance of coconut trees. The men attacked these coconuts with such greedy hunger and they drank the sap with such haste that on the succeeding day they were all very ill with great pains and a feeling that they might explode at any moment just as their ship had done. From the presence of this island Bontoku argued that the coast of Sumatra must be about fifteen miles distant. He filled the boat with many coconuts a wonderful fruit because it is food and drink at the same time and sailed far the eastward. After seventy hours he actually reached Sumatra but the surf did not allow him to land at once. It took an entire day before his men managed to row through that terrible surf and then only at the cost of a swamped boat. At last however they did reach the shore, bailed out their boat and made a fire to dry their clothes and to rest from the fatigue of this terrible experience. Some of the sailors meanwhile explored the country nearby and to their great astonishment they found the ashes of an old fire and near it some tobacco. This was very welcome for the men had not smoked for many weeks. They also found some beans. These they ate so greedily that they were all ill and in the middle of the night when they lay around groaning and moaning they were suddenly attacked by the natives of the island. They had no arms but they defended themselves as well as possible with sticks and pieces of burning wood which they picked up out of the fire. The natives fled and the next morning sent three messages to have a talk with the shipwrecked hollanders. They wanted to know why he and his men had come to their island. They were told the story of the burning ship and the explosion which had killed many of the other sailors. Bontiku said that he was a peaceful traveller and would pay for everything he bought. The natives believed this story and came back with chickens and rice and all sorts of eatables for which Bontiku paid with money. The natives then told him that this land was Sumatra and that Java was a little farther to the east. They even knew the name of the Governor General and Bontiku and felt certain that he was on the right road to a Dutch harbour. Before he left he made a little trip up the river to buy more food for he counted upon a long voyage in the small boat. This visit almost cost him his life. One day he had bought a Karabao. He had paid for the animal and told the four sailors who were with him to bring it to the camp but the Karabao was so wild that they could not go. The four sailors decided to spend the night in the village and try their luck once more the next morning. Bontiku thought that this was too dangerous and when his men refused to return to join the others he hired two natives to paddle him back in their own canoe. The natives told him the price for which they would row him back to the camp and he gave them the required sum but when they were out in the middle of the river they threatened to kill them as he gave them more money. Bontiku said a short prayer and felt very uncomfortable. Then he heard a voice inside himself tell him to sing a funny song. This he did. He sang so loud that the noise resounded through the quiet forests on both sides of the river. The two natives thought that this was the funniest thing that they had ever heard and they laughed so uproarously that they forgot all about the plan to kill the natives and Bontiku came safely back to his own people. The next morning a number of natives appeared with a carabao but Bontiku saw at once that it was not the same one that he had bought the day before. He asked about it and wanted to know where his men were. Oh! the natives said. They are lazy and they will come a little later. This looked suspicious but whatever happened Bontiku must have this carabao to be eaten on the trip across the Strait of Zunda. Therefore he tried to kill the animal but when they saw this the natives suddenly began to call him names and they shrieked until several hundred others came running from the bushes and attacked the Hollenders. These fled back to their boat but before they could reach it eleven men had been killed. Of those who scrambled on board one had been hit in the stomach with a poisoned arrow. Bontiku performed an operation trying to cut away the flesh around the wound but he did not succeed in saving the life of the poor fellow. There were now only fifty-six men left. With only eight chickens for so many men Bontiku did not dare to cross the Strait. The next morning armed he went on shore and having gathered a lot of clams and filled the small barrels with fresh water sailed away for the coast of Java. They sailed all day long but at night there came so violent a wind that the sails had to be taken down and the boat drifted whether it pleased the good Lord to send it. It pleased him to bring it the next morning near three small islands densely covered with palm trees. Out of the bamboo which grew near the shore several water barrels were improvised. There was still some food but not much. Therefore the discovery of these islands did not bring much relief to the poor shipwrecked people. Bontiku wondered about in a despondent mood and when he saw a small hill he climbed to the top of it to be alone and to pray to the good Lord for his divine counsel. He prayed for a long time and when at last he opened his eyes he saw that the clouds on the horizon had parted and that there was more land in the distance and out of this he saw two bluish looking mountains lifting their peaks. Suddenly he remembered that his friend, Captain Schouten who had been in those parts of India had often told him of two strange blue mountains which he had often seen in Java. He had sailed across the sea which separated Sumatra from Java and the island on which he and his men now were was a little island off the coast He knew his way now and he ordered his men to row as fast as they could. A boy was told to climb the mast and keep watch. And behold the next day the sailors suddenly saw a large Dutch fleet of 23 ships under Frederick Houtman who had left Tessel with Bontiku and was on his way to Batavia. He took all the men on board his ships. He fed them gave them clothes and carried them to Batavia, the newly founded capital of the Dutch East Indies where the Governor General one Jan-Petersoon Cohen received them very kindly and appointed Bontiku to be captain of a new ship of 32 guns which plied between the different colonies and carried provisions and supplies of war from Java to the other colonies. It also brought to Java the granite which was necessary to build the strong fort where the government of the colony was to reside. Later on Bontiku was made captain of another ship called the Honingen and he visited China where the Dutch company tried to capture the Portuguese colony in Macau and to build a fort on one of the Pescadores islands to protect their Chinese trade. After two years of this work Bontiku wanted to return home and he asked to be given the command that was about to leave for Holland. He was given command of the Holandia which with two other ships left Batavia on the 6th of February of the year of our lord 1625. But Bontiku's bad luck had not yet come to an end. This patient man who never lost his temper and accepted everything that happened to him with devout resignation once more became the victim of all sorts of unfortunate occurrences. On the 19th of March his ship was attacked by a terrible storm and soon the waves threatened to swamp the vessel. Bontiku ordered the men to work the pumps as hard as they could. Then the pepper stowed away and the hold broke loose, got into the pumps and clogged them. Finally baskets were placed about the lower part of the pumps to keep the pernicious pepper out of them and the Holandia of the other two ships, one, the Hauda had disappeared when the morning came and the other the Middelburg had suffered much. Her masts were broken and they had no spare the Atlantic. Finally the Middelburg left part of his spare yards for masts and then he sailed with all possible haste for Madagascar to repair his own damage. He reached the island inside a week and cut himself a mast out of a tree. He repaired his ship and spent a month on the island where he was well received by the natives who flocked from all over to see how the Holanders made a new ship out of the wreck which they had saved from the storm. Here Bontiku waited for the other ships. But the Hauda had sunk and the other, the Middelburg reached Madagascar much later and spent several months in the Bay of Anton Gil. Most of her people were ill and among those who died on the island was the commander of the ship, Wilhelm Schouten, who with Lemaire had discovered the new route between the Pacific and the Atlantic. Finally the Middelburg left Madagascar and sailed to St Helena. There she got into a fight with two Portuguese vessels and that is the last word we have ever received of her. As of Bontiku, he reached St Helena where he wanted to take in fresh water. But a Spanish ship had landed troops and he was not allowed to come on shore. So he went farther on and at last reached Kinsale in Ireland. This time the joys of life on land almost finished the brave captain who so often had escaped the anger of the waves. His sailors went on shore and after the long voyage of the Irish Inns so well that they refused to come back on board. They stayed on shore until the mayor of the city at the request of Bontiku forbade the owners of ale houses to give the Hollanders more than seven shillings credit apiece. As soon as this was known the men, many of whom had spent much more than that, hastened back to their ship. Crowds of furious innkeepers and their wives crying aloud for their money followed them. Good Captain Bontiku paid everybody what he or she had a right to ask and finally on the 25th of November of the year 1625 he reached home. Bontiku went to live quietly in his native city of Horne. He had written a short account of his voyage but he had never printed it because he did not think that he could write well enough. But one of his fellow townsmen wanted to write a large volume upon the noble deeds of the people of Horne and he asked Bontiku to write down the main events of his famous voyage and he promised to edit the little book for the benefit of the reading public. And behold this same public, saturated with stories of wild men and wild animals and terrible storms and uninhabited islands and treacherous Portuguese and hair-breath escapes took such a fancy to the simple recital of Bontiku's pious trip toward heaven and the patience with which he had accepted the vicissitudes of life that they read his little book long after the more ponderous volumes had been left to the kind ministrations of the meritorious bookworm. End of section 12 LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by James Bennett Melbourne, Australia. Chapter 9 Shelton and Le Maire Discover a New Straight This is the story of a voyage to a country which did not exist. The men who risked their capital in this expedition hoped to reach a territory which we now call Australia. It was not exactly the Australia which we know from a modern geography. It was a mysterious continent of which there had been heard many rumours for more than half a century. What the contemporary traveller really hoped to find we do not know. But we have the details of an expedition to this new land called Terra Australis Incognita or the unknown Southern Land an expedition which left the harbour of Hoon on the 15th of June of the year 1615. Hoon is a little city on the Zyde Sea just such a little city as Inquison from which Lynn Shorten had set out upon his memorable voyage. This voyage had a short preface which has little to do with navigation but much with provincial politics and commercial rivalry. The original idea of allowing everybody to found his own little Indian trading company after his own wishes had been a bad one from an economic point of view. There was so much competition between the three dozen little companies that all were threatened with bankruptcy. Therefore a financial genius the eminent leader of the province of Holland, John of Barnerville took matters into his own capable hands and combined all little companies into one large East India trading company a commercial body which existed until the year 1795 and was a great success from start to finish. Among the original investors there had been a certain Jacques Le Maire, a native of the town of Antwerp who had fled when the Spaniards took that city for the second time and who now lived in Amsterdam with his wife and his 22 children. He was respected for his ability and was chosen into the body of directors who managed the affairs of the East India Company but Le Maire was not the sort of man to stay in the harness with others for a very long time. He complained that the company cared only for dividends and immediate profits. He wanted to see the ships of his adopted country make war upon the Spaniards besides trying to steal their colonies. After a few years Le Maire quarrelled openly with several of the other directors and he planned to form an Indian company of his own. In Amsterdam however he was so strongly opposed by his enemies who were still in the old company that he was forced to leave the city. He went to live in a small village nearby and continued to work upon his schemes. With Hendrik Hudson he discussed the decision of reaching the Indies by way of the Northwestern route a route which was as yet untried. To King Henry IV of France he made the offer of establishing a new French company as a rival of the mighty Dutch institution. All these many ideas came to nothing. Henry IV was murdered and Hudson went into the service of another employer. Le Maire was obliged to invent something new. He was in a very difficult position. The Estates General of the Dutch Republic had given to their one East India company a practical monopoly of the entire Indian trade. They decided that no Dutch ship should be allowed to travel to the Indies except through the Strait of Magellan or by way of the Cape of Good Hope. That meant that the entrance to the Indian Spice Islands was closed at both sides. It was of course easy enough to sail through the Strait or past the Cape. There was nobody to prevent one from doing so but when one tried to trade in India on his own account the Dutch company sent their men of war after the intruder. These wanted to know who he was and how he came within the domain of the company. Since there were only two roads he must have trespassed in one way or the other in order to find the passengers of the company. Therefore the company which was the sovereign ruler of all the Indian Islands had the right to confiscate his ships. If La Mer could only find a new road to India he would not interfere with the strict rules of the Estates General. His ships could then trade in the Pacific and in the Indian Ocean and he would be the most dangerous rival of the old company which he had learned to hate and had first invested 60,000 guilders and had been one of the directors. For a long time La Mer studied books and maps and atlases and finally came to the conclusion that there must be another way of getting from the Atlantic into the Pacific besides the long and tortuous Strait of Magellan and if there were a Strait there must be land on the other side of it. If only this could be discovered La Mer would be rich again and could laugh at the pretensions of the East India Company. La Mer didn't go to Amsterdam to get the necessary funds for his expedition. He interested the good people of the little town of Hoorn and with a fine prospectus about his unknown southern land he soon got all the money he needed. The Estates General were willing to give him all the privileges he asked for provided he did not touch the monopolies of their beloved East India Company. Even Prince Maurice interested himself sufficiently in this voyage to a new continent to give La Mer a letter of introduction which put the expedition upon more official footing. Two small ships were board and 87 men were engaged for two years. The largest ship of the two called the Eintracht there were 65 men and on the small yacht, the Hoorn there were 22. William Cornelis Shelton was commander in chief. He had made three trips to India by way of the Cape. Two sons of La Mer one called Jacques the other Daniel went with the expedition to keep a watchful eye upon everything and to see to it that others' wishes were carefully executed. The ships were forbidden to enter the Strait of Magellan. In case of need they might return by way of the Cape but they must be careful not to trade with any of the Indian Princes who now recognise the rule of the East India Company. The main purpose of the expedition was to find the unknown continent in the Pacific. For this main purpose it was to identify everything else and so they left Hoorn and they sailed toward the south. It was more than 20 years since the first expedition had sailed for India. The route across the Atlantic was well known by this time there is nothing particular to narrate about the dull trip of three months enlivened only by the attack of a large monster a sort of unicorn which stuck his horn into the ship that he perished and left behind the horn which was found when the ships were overhauled near the island of Porto Desiato when Van Nort too had made ready for his trip through the Strait many years before. The cleaning of the smaller of the two vessels however was done so carelessly that it caught fire. Since it had been placed on a high bank at high tide and the water had ebbed with which to extinguish the conflagration except for the guns the entire ship and its contents were lost. The sailors were taken on board the Eandrat and on the 13th of January of the year 1616 the ship passed by the entrance of the Strait of Magellan and began to search for a new thoroughfare into the Pacific farther toward the south. On the 23rd of January the most eastern promontory of Tierra del Fuego was seen. The next day the high mountains of another little island further toward the east appeared in the distance. Evidently La Mer had been right in his calculations. There was an upper straight and the Eandrat had discovered it. Such big events are usually very simple affairs. The southernmost point of Tierra del Fuego was easily reached and was called Cape Horn after the town which had equipped the expedition. The Eandrat now sailed further westward and in less than two weeks found herself in the Pacific Ocean. On the 12th of February the great discovery was celebrated with a party for the benefit of the sailors. They had been the first to pass through the Strait of Jacques Le Mer which was discovered by Magellan 95 years before could now be given up for the safer and shorter passage through Strait Le Mer and the open water south of Tierra del Fuego. The ship had an easy voyage until it dropped its anchors before Juan Fernández the famous island of Robinson Crusoe. It was found to be the little paradise which Defoe afterward painted a chaining novel. Fresh water was taken on board and the voyage was continued. After a month of rapid progress with good eastern wind land was seen. It was a small coral island probably one of the Powermutta group. Some men swam ashore for it was impossible to use the boat on account of the heavy surf. They saw nothing but a flat naked island with strange dogs that did not bark. They found some fresh fruit which they brought back to the ship for the sick people. Of course there were sick people that was a part of every voyage but the illness was not serious. Four days later they discovered a second island somewhat larger. This was inhabited. A canoe with painted savages came out to the Dutch ship. Since the savages spoke neither Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese nor Malay and the Dutch sailors did not know the Papua dialect it was impossible to have conversation with these ignorant people who refused to come on board. Captain Shelton was not in need of anything and he went on his way to try his luck at the next island. The natives had now discovered that there was no harm in this island object. They came climbing over all the sides of the ship. They stole brass nails and small metal objects hid them in their woolly and long hair and then jumped overboard. Everywhere the same thing happened. Shelton sailed from one island to the next but of any new continent however he found no sign. When you look at the nap you will notice that this part is covered with small islands. Their inhabitants are great mariners and in their little boats travel long distances. Shelton with his big ship caused great consternation among these simple fishermen who hastily fled whenever they saw this strange big devil bearing down upon them. The trip was very pleasant but it grew tiresome to discover nothing but little islands. Just however on the 10th of May a big one with high mountains and forests was reached. It was called Kokus Island because there were many coconut trees near the shore. The inhabitants of the island being unfamiliar with white people were very hospitable and were willing to trade fresh coconuts and other edible things for a few gifts of trinkets and perhaps a small pocket knife. But jealousy was not unknown even in this distant part of the South Seas. Soon there was a quarrel between those canoes nearest to the ship which had obtained presents and others too far away to receive anything. Also there was a good deal of annoyance caused by the fact that the natives insisted upon stealing everything they could find on the ship. Finally, Shelton was obliged to appoint a temporary police of armed with heavy canes to keep the natives in their proper place. Otherwise they might have stolen the ship itself just as they had once tried to make away with all the boats. Upon that occasion they had made their first acquaintance of firearms. When they saw what a little bullet could do they respected the mysterious lead pipes which made a sudden loud noise and killed a man at a hundred yards. Near Kokus Island there appeared to be more mountainous land and Shelton decided to visit it. The king came out in state in his canoe to greet the Dutch captain. He was entertained royally with a concert to show how much he appreciated the lovely music which he had just heard. The king yelled and shrieked as loudly as he could. It was very funny and everybody was happy that this pleasant relation did not last long. For when the Hollanders were about to reciprocate the visit their ship was attacked and several volleys from the large cannon were necessary to drive the natives away. These islands were called the islands of the traitors because the king had tried to kill the people whom he had invited as his guests and they are known today as the Ladrones. The eentracht was now 1600 miles to the west of Peru and as yet the unknown southern continent had not been discovered. The wind continued to blow from the east. In a council of the officers of the ship it was decided to keep a more northern cause until it could be ascertained with precision where they were in this vast expanse of pacific water and small coral islands. It was an unfortunate decision. The ship was then very near the coast of Australia. Sailing from one group of islands to the next it had followed a cause parallel to the northern coast of the continent for which the men were searching with great industry. After a while they were obliged to land on another island for fresh water. They were again entertained by the king of the island. He gave a dinner and dance in their honour and they had a chance to admire the graceful motions of the young girls of the villages. They must have been among the Fiji Islands. Far the westward however they discovered that the attitude of the natives towards them began to change. Evidently they were reaching a region where the white man was not unknown and was accordingly distrusted. Chinese and Japanese objects here and there a knife or a gun of European origin were found among the natives who came paddling out to the Dutch ship. Their map told them that they were approaching the domains of the East India Company. It had not been their intention to do this but the reputed southern continent seemed to be a myth. It was time for them to try and reach home and report their adventures to the owners of the ship. Sailing along the coast of New Guinea they at last reached the port of Ternate on the 17th of September. Here they found a large Dutch fleet which had just reached the Indies by way of the Strait of Magellan. This fleet was under command of Admiral von Spilbergen who was much surprised to hear that the Antarct had reached the Pacific through a new strait. He showed that he did not believe the story which Shelton told of his new discoveries. If there were such a strait then why had it taken the Antarct such a long time to reach Ternate? Etc. The Admiral suspected that this ship was a mere interlope sent by La Mer to trade in a region where according to the instructions of the East Indian Company no other ships than those of the company were allowed to engage in commas. This suspicion was very unpleasant for the brave Shelton but there were other things to worry him. Before the expedition started Old La Mer, a shrewd trader had thought of the possibility that his ships might not be able to find this unknown continent. In that case he didn't want them to come home without some profit to himself and he had invented a scheme by which he might perhaps beat the company at her own game. The Governor-General of the Dutch colonies at that time was a certain Gerard Doreenst who was known to be an avaricious and dishonest official. La Mer counted upon this and to his eldest son he had given secret instructions which told him what to do in such circumstances. The idea was very simple young La Mer must bribe Reinst with an offer of money or whatever would be most acceptable to the Governor. In return for this Reinst would not be too particular if the Eindracht went to some out-of-the-way island and bought a few hundred thousand pounds worth of spices. It was a very happy idea and it undoubtedly would have worked. Unfortunately Reinst had just died. His successor was no one less than Jan Pietersen-Koen the man of iron who was to hammer the few isolated settlements of one strong colonial empire. Koen could not be bribed. To him the law was the law. The Eindracht did not belong to the East India Company therefore it had no right to be in India according to Koen's positive instructions. The ship was confiscated. The men were allowed to return to Holland and the owners were told that they could start a lawsuit against Dutch courts to decide whether the Governor-General had acted within his rights or not. Young Le Maire sailed for Holland very much dejected. He had lost his father's ship and nobody would believe him when he told of his great discovery of the new and short connection between the Pacific and the Atlantic. He died on the way home died of disappointment. His hopes had been so great he had done his task faithfully and he and Shelton had found a large number of new islands and had added many thousands of miles of geographical information to that part of the map which was still covered with the ominous letters of Terra incognita. Yet through an ordinance which many people did not recognise as just, he was deprived of the glory which ought to have come to him. His younger brother reached Holland on the 2nd of July of the year 1617 and a week later he appeared in the meeting of the Estates-General. This time the story which he told was believed by his hearers the idea of an old man being the chief mover in equipping such a wonderful enterprise with the help of his sons and only a small capital against all sorts of odds, assured La Mer the sympathy of the man in the street. For a while Governor-General Cohen was highly unpopular. Old La Mer started a suit for the recovery of his ship and its contents. After two years of pleading he won his case. The East India Company was ordered to pay back the value of the ship and the goods confiscated. All his official papers were returned to La Mer. His name and that of the little town of Hearn given to the most southern part of the American continent and to the shortest route from the Atlantic to the Pacific tell of this great voyage of the year 1618. End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 of the Golden Book of Dutch Navigators by Hendrik Willem van Loom This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jane Bennett Melbourne Australia Chapter 10 Tasman Explores Australia It often happened that ships of the Dutch East India Company on their way to the Indies were blown out of their course or carried by the currents in a southern direction. Then they were driven into a part of the map which was as yet unknown and they had to find their way about very much as a stranger might do who has left the well known track of the desert. Sometimes these ships were lost. More often they reached a low flat coast which seemed to extend both east and west as far as the eye could reach which offered very little food and very little water and appeared to be the shoreline of a vast continent which was remarkably poor in both plants and animals. Indeed so unattractive was this big island as it was then supposed to be to the captains of the company that not a single one of them had ever taken the trouble to explore it. They had followed the coastline until once more they reached the well known regions of their map and then they had hastened northward to the comfortable waters of their own Indian Ocean. But of course people talked about this mysterious big island and they wondered whether perhaps the stories of the Old Testament the stories of the golden land of a fear which had never yet been found might not yet be proved true in that large part of the map which showed a blank space and was covered with letters of terror incognito. If there were any such land still to be discovered by any European people the Dutch East India Company decided that they ought to benefit by it. Therefore their directors studied the question with great care and deliberation. A number of expeditions were sent out one after the other. In the year 1636 two small vessels were ordered to make a careful examination of the island of New Guinea which was supposed to be the peninsular part of the unknown southern continent. But New Guinea itself is so large that the two vessels, after spending a very long time along the coast were obliged to return without any definite information. Anthony Van Diemen the Governor General of the Dutch East Indies however was a man of stubborn purpose and he refused to discontinue his search until he should have positive knowledge upon this puzzling subject. Six years after this first attempt he appointed a certain Franz Jakobs Wiescher to study the question theoretically from every possible angle and to write him a detailed report. Wiescher had crossed the Pacific Ocean a few years after the discovery of Strait Le Maire and he had visited Japan and China and was familiar with all the better known parts of the Asiatic seas. He said to work and he gave the following advice the ships of the company must take the island of Mauritius as their starting point. They must follow a south eastern course until they should reach the 54 degree of latitude. If in the meantime they had not found any land they must turn toward the east until they should reach New Guinea and from there using this peninsula or island or whatever it was as a starting point they should establish its correct relation to the continent of which it was supposed to be a solid part. If it should prove to be an island then the ships must chart the strait which separated it from the continent and they must find out that these did not offer a short route from India to Strait Le Maire and the Atlantic Ocean. Van Diemen studied those plans carefully. He approved of them and ordered two ships to be made ready for the voyage. They were small ships. There was the Himes Kerak with 60 men and the Zihayan with only 40. Visha was engaged to actors pilot and general advisor of the expedition. The command was given to one Abel Tasman. Like most of the great men of the Republic he had made his own career born in an insignificant village in the northern part of the Republic somewhere in the province of Groningen. The name of the village was Lujigad. He had started life as a sailor had worked his way up through ability and force of character and in the early 30s of the 17th century he'd gone to India. Thereafter he had spent most of his life as captain or mate of different ships of the company. He had been commander of an expedition sent out to discover a new gold land which according to rumour must be situated somewhere off the coast of Japan and although he did not find it since it did not exist he added many new islands to the map of the company. Since he was a man of very independent character he was specially fitted to be in command of an expedition which might meet with many unforeseen difficulties. His instructions gave him absolute freedom of action. The chief purpose of this expedition was a scientific one. Professional draftsmen were appointed to accompany the hemskeric and make careful maps of everything that should be discovered. Special attention must be paid to the currents of the ocean and to the prevailing direction of the wind. Furthermore, a careful study of the natives must be made. Their mode of life, their customs and their habits must be investigated and they must be treated with kindness. If the natives should come on board and should steal things the Hollenders must not mind such trifles. The chief aim of the expedition was to establish relations with whatever races were to be discovered. Of course there was little hope of finding anything except long-haired Perpeuans but if by any chance Tasman should discover the unknown south land and find that this continent contained the room at riches he must not show himself desirous of getting gold and silver. On the contrary he must show the inhabitants lead brass and tell them that these two metals were the most valuable commodities in the country which had sent him upon his voyage. Finally whatever land was found must be annexed officially for the benefit of the estates general of the Dutch Republic and of this fact some lasting memorial must be left upon the coast in the form of a written document well hidden below a stone board, planted in such a way that the natives couldn't destroy it. On the 19th of August Tasman and his two ships went to Mauritius where the tanks were filled with fresh water and all the men got a holiday they were given plenty of food to strengthen them for the voyage which they were about to undertake through the unknown seas. After a month of leisure the two ships left on the 6th of October of the year 1642 and started out to discover whatever they might find the farther southward they got the colder the climate began to be snow and hail and fog were the order of the day seals appeared and everything indicated that they were reaching the arctic ocean of the southern hemisphere day and night they kept a man in the crow's nest to look for land. Tasman offered a reward of money for the rum for the sailor who should first see a light upon the horizon but they found nothing except saltwater and a cloudy sky. Tasman consulted Visha and asked him whether it would not be better to follow the 44 degree of latitude than to go farther into this stormy region. Since they had been sailing in the southern direction for almost a month without finding anything at all Visha agreed to this change in his original plans. Once more they followed a couple of weeks of dreary travel without the sight of anything hopeful. At last on the 29th of November of the year 1642 at four o'clock of the afternoon land was seen. Tasman thought that it was part of his continent and called it Van Diemen's Land after the Governor General who had sent him out. We know that it was an island to the south of the Australian continent and we now call it Tasmania. On the 2nd of December Tasman tried to go unsure with all his officers but the weather was bad and the surf was too dangerous for the small boat of the Heemskerk. The ships carpenter then jumped overboard with the flag of the Dutch Republic under his arm. He reached the shore, planted his pole and with Tasman and his staff floating on the high waves of the Australian surf and applauding him the carpenter hoisted the orange, white and blue colours which were to show to all the world that the white man had taken possession of a new part of the world. The carpenter once more swam through the waves was pulled back into the boat and the first ceremony connected with the southern continent was over. The voyage was then continued but nowhere could the ships find a safe bay in which they might drop anchor. Everywhere the coast appeared to be dangerous. The surf was high and the wind blew hard. At last on the 18th of December after another long voyage across the open sea more land was seen this time the coast was even more dangerous than it had been in Tasmania and the land was covered with high mountains. Furthermore the Hollanders had to deal with a new sort of native much more savage and more able to defend themselves than those who had looked at the two ships from the safe distance of Van Diemen's land but had fled whenever the white man tried to come near their shore. At first the natives of this new land rode out to the Heemskerk and the Zeehain and paddled around the ships without doing any harm but one day the boat of the Zeehunt tried to return their visit. It was at once attacked by the ferocious natives three Dutch sailors were killed with clubs and several were wounded with spears. Not until after the Heemskerk had fired a volley and had sunk with canoes did the others flee and leave the Dutch boat alone. The wounded men were taken on board where several of them died next day. Tasman did not dare to risk a further investigation of this bay with his small vessels and after the loss of several of his small company he departed. The police of disaster he called Tasman Bay and sailed further towards the north. If he had gone a few miles to the east he would have discovered that this was not a bay at all but the strait which divides the northern and southern part of New Zealand. Now it is called Cook Strait after the famous British sailor who a century later explored that part of the world and who found that New Zealand is not part of a continent but a large island with a splendid chance for a settlement. It was very fertile and the natives had reached a much higher degree of civilisation than those of the Australian continent. Cook made another interesting discovery. The natives who had seen the first appearance of the white man had been so deeply impressed by the arrival of the two Dutch ships that they turned their mysterious appearance into a myth. This myth had grown in size and importance with each new generation and when Captain Cook dropped anchor off the coast of New Zealand and established relations with the natives the latter told him a wonderful story of two gigantic vessels which had come to their island ever so long ago and which had been destroyed by their ancestors while all the men on board had been killed. It was easy to follow Tasman on the modern map. After leaving Cook straight he went northward and passing between the most northern point of the island which he called Cape Maria Van Diemen and a small island which because it was discovered on the 6th of January was called the Three Kings Island he reached open water once more. He now took his course due north in the hope of reaching the islands which La Mer had discovered. Instead of that on the 19th of January the two ships found several islands of the Tonga group also called the Frendy Islands they baptised these with names of local Dutch celebrities and famous men in the nautical world of Holland and one of them called Amsterdam because it looked a little more promising than any of the others the ships stopped and once more an attempt was made to establish amicable relations with the natives. These came rowing out to the ship and whenever anything was thrown overboard they dived after it and showed an ability to swim and to remain underwater whichever since has been connected with the idea of the South Sea population. By means of signs and after all sorts of presence such as little mirrors and nails had been thrown overboard to be fished up by the natives Tasman got into communication with the Tonga people he showed them a mean thin chicken and pointed to his stomach. The natives understood this and brought him fresh food he showed an empty glass and went through the motion of drinking the natives pointed to the land and showed him by signs that they knew what was wanted and that there was fresh water to be obtained on shore. Gradually the natives lost their fear and climbed on board in exchange for the coconuts which they brought they received a plentiful supply of old rusty nails. When those on shore heard that the millennium of useful metal had come sailing into their harbour their eagerness to get their own share was so great that hundreds of them came swimming out to the Dutch vessels to offer their wares before the supply of nails should be exhausted. Tasman himself went on land and the relations between native and visitor was so pleasant that the first appearance of the white man became the subject of a Tonga epic which was still recited among the natives when the next European ship landed here a century and a quarter later. Going from island to island and everywhere meeting with the same sort of long haired vigorous looking men Tasman now sailed in a south western direction. He spent several weeks between the Fiji islands and the group now called Samoa. During all this time his ships were in grave danger of running upon the hidden reefs which are plentiful in this part of the Pacific. At last the winter began to approach and the weather grew more and more unstable and as the ships after their long voyage were in need of a safe harbor and repair it was decided to try and return within the confines of the map of the known and explored world. Accordingly the ships sailed westward and discovered several islands of the Solomon group. Sailed through the Bismarck Archipelago as it is called now and after several months reached the northern part of New Guinea which they too supposed to be the northern coast of the large continent of which they had touched the shores at so many spots but which instead of the promised Ophir was a dreary flat land surrounded by little islands full of coconuts, natives and palm trees but without a scrapper of either gold or silver. Tasman then found himself in well known regions. He made straight away for Batavia and on the 15th of June of the year 1644 he landed to report his adventures to the Governor General and the Council of the Indian Company. A few months later he was sent out upon a new expedition this time with three ships. He made a detailed investigation of the northern coast of the real Australian continent. He sailed into the Gulf of Carpentaria. He found the Torres Strait which he supposed to be a bay between New Guinea and Australia for the report of the Torres Discovery in 1607 was as yet in the dusty archives of Manila and had not yet been given to the world and once more he returned by way of the western coast of New Guinea to inform the Governor General that whatever continent he had found produced nothing which could be of any material profit to the Dutch East India Company. In short New Holland as Australia was then called was not settled by the Hollanders because it had no immediate commercial value. After this last voyage no further expeditions were sent out to look for the supposed southern continent. From the reports of several ships which had reached the west coast of Australia and from the information brought home by Tasman it was decided that whatever land there might still be hidden between the 110 and 111 degree of longitude offered no inducements to a respectable trading company which looked for gold and silver and spices that had no use for kangaroos and the duck-billed platypus. New Holland was left alone until the growing population of the European continent drove other nations to explore this part of the world once more 120 years later. End of chapter 10 Chapter 11 The Hollanders entered the field of geographical exploration at a late date. The Spaniards and the Portuguese had discovered and navigated distant parts of the world for almost two centuries before the Hollander began to leave his own shores. But when we remember that they were a small nation and were engaged on one of the most gigantic wars which was ever fought the result of their labours as pioneers of the map was considerable. They found Spitzbergen and many new islands in the Arctic and gave us the first reliable information about the impractic ability of the northeastern passage. They discovered a new route to the Pacific shorter and less dangerous than the Strait of Magellan. They charted the southern part of the Pacific and made the first scientific inspection of the Australian continent besides discovering New Zealand and Tasmania. They discovered a number of new islands in the Indian Ocean and settled upon the fertile islands of Mauritius. Of course I now enumerate only the names of their actual discoveries. They established settlements in North and South America and all over Asia and in many places of Africa. They opened a small window into the mysterious Japanese Empire and got into a relation with the Son of Heaven who resided in Peking. They founded a very prosperous colony in South Africa. They had colonies along the Red Sea and the Gulf of Persia. But about these colonies in another book. This time I give only the story of the voyages of actual discovery. The adventures of men who set out to perform the work of pioneers, the career of navigators who had convinced themselves that here or there a new continent or an undiscovered Cape or a forgotten island awaited their curious eyes and who then risked their fortunes and their lives to realise their dreams. They discovered the men of constructive vision who are of greater value to their world than any others because they show the human race the road of the future. In Holland the loss of those was a certain Jacob Rocheveen a man of deep learning for many years a member of the high tribunal of the Indies and a leader among his fellow beings wherever he went. He had travelled a great deal and might have spent the rest of his few years peacefully at home but when he was 62 years old the desire to learn more of the southern continent which had been seen but which had never been thoroughly explored the wish to know definitely whether there remained anything as yet undiscovered in the pacific ocean drove him across the equator. With 3 ships and 600 men he left Tessel on the 1st of August in the year 1721 and the next year in February he was near Juan Fernandez in the pacific ocean an expedition like this had never been seen before all the experience of past years had been studied most carefully it was known that people fell ill and died of scurvy because they did not get enough fresh vegetables wooden boxes filled with earth were therefore placed along the bulwarks of all the ships in these some simple and hardy vegetables were planted instead of the old method of taking boxes full of brand which turned sour and got mouldy ovens were placed on board and flour was taken along from which to bake brand an attempt was made to preserve carrots and beets in boxes filled with powdered peat people still fell ill during this voyage but the wholesale death of at least half of the crew of which we read in all the old voyages did not take place when Rochevein reached Juan Fernandez he found the cabin of Robinson Cruzo just as it had been left in the year 1709 otherwise the island proved to be uninhabited on the 17th of March the ships continued their way and a southern course was taken nothing was seen until Easter day when a new island was found on the spot where an English map hinted at the existence of a large continent this island however contained nothing except a few natives it did not in the least resemble the unknown southern continent of which Rochevein dreamed therefore he went farther toward the south for a while he followed the route taken many years before by Le Mer some of the islands which Le Mer had visited he found on his map others he could not locate still others were now seen for the first time it was a very dangerous sea to navigate the Pacific Ocean is full of reefs these reefs now appear upon the map but even in this day of scientific navigation they wreck many a ship on the 19th of April one of Rochevein's ships ran upon such a hidden reef in the middle of the night the crew was saved and was divided among the other two vessels the ship however was a total loss nothing could be saved of the personal belongings of the men and the provisions it is a curious fact that the south sea islands always have had a wonderful fascination for a certain kind of temperament many times while ships crossed the Pacific in the 17th and 18th century sailors preferred to remain behind on some small island and spend the rest of their lives there with the natives and the fine weather and the long days of lazy ease five of Rochevein's crew remained behind on one of those islands and when in the year 1764 the British explored the King George Archipelago they actually found one of these five then a very old man more than half a year was spent by Rochevein in exploring the hundreds of islands and the many groups of larger islands which the industrious coral insect had built upon the bottom of the ocean he found the Samoan islands and visited several of the Fiji group everywhere he met with the same sort of natives how they got there was a puzzle to Rochevein they must have come from some large continent and he intended to find that continent but time went by and his supplies dwindled away and he did not see anything that resembled his famous continent whenever a new peak appeared upon the horizon there was hope of reaching the land of promise but from nearby the peak always proved to be another rock sticking out of a placid sea and giving shelter to a few thousand naked savages Rochevein did not stop his search until his men began to get sick and until he had eaten his last piece of bread finally when two thirds of the crew had died he considered himself beaten in his search and after visiting New Guinea he went to the Indies this expedition the last one to sail forth to find the land of Ophir of the Old Testament was a failure we have been obliged by the same observation about many of the other voyages which we have described in this little book it is true they added some positive knowledge to the map they located new islands and described rivers and reefs and currents and the velocity or absence of wind in distant parts of the pacific ocean but they always cost the lives of many people and they ruined the investors in a most cruel fashion but they had one great advantage they forced people to leave their comfortable homes they made them go forth and search for things about which they had had expectant visions to the rest of the world they gave the tangible sign that in this little Dutch corner of the North Sea there lived a people of enterprise and courage who although very rich could yet see beyond mere material gain and what more can we ask the author wishes to state his indebtedness to the work of Dr. de Boer who first of all turned to lengthy and often tedious reports of foreign travel into a concise and readable form and brought the knowledge of these early adventures among a larger number of readers than before copies of the voyages in original and reprint can be found in many American libraries the material for illustrations is very complete where no originals were available reprints are made from the pictures which the publishing firm of Milenhof and Go of Amsterdam printed in Dr. de Boer's first series of ancient voyages end of section 15 recording by phone end of the golden book of the Dutch navigators by Hendrik van Loon