ABSTRACT
THE Directors of the East India Company, encouraged by the successful return of the five ships of General Carpenter, richly laden, caused eleven vessels to be equipped the very same year, 1628, for the same voyage: amongst which, there was one ship called the Batavia, commanded by Captain Francis Pelsart. He sailed from the Texel on the 28th of October 1628; and, as it would be tedious to the reader to give him a long account of a passage so well known as that to the Cape of Good Hope, I shall pass over in silence that portion of his journal, and content myself with observing, that on the 4th of June in the following year, 1629, this vessel, the Batavia, being separated from the fleet in a storm, was driven on some rocks which lie in the latitude of 28° south, and which are called by the Dutch the Abrolhos of Frederick Hputman. Captain Pelsart, who was sick in bed when this accident happened, perceived at once that his ship had struck. It was night, indeed; but the moon shone very brightly, and the weather was fair. He immediately ran upon deck, and found that all the sails were set; their course was north-east by north; and the sea appeared covered with a white froth as far as the eye could reach. He summoned the master, and charged him with the loss of the ship; who excused himself by saying, he had taken all the
care he could; and that, having discerned the froth at a distance, he asked his shipmate, what he thought of it; who told him, that this whiteness was occasioned by the rays of the moon. The captain then asked him, what was to he done; and in what part of the world they were. The master replied, that God only knew that, and that the ship was on an unknown reef. They sounded, and found eighteen feet of water abaft, and much less foreward. They immediately agreed to throw their cannon overboard, in hopes that, when the ship was lightened, she might be brought to float again. They dropped an anchor, however; but meanwhile there arose a storm of wind and rain, which soon convinced them of the danger they were in ; for, being surrounded with rocks and shoals, the ship was perpetually striking.
