population, since we had few or no opportunities for inquiring into these matters. Meanwhile I hope that with Godâs help Your Worships will in time get information touching these points from the black we have captured, to whose utterances I would beg leave to refer you.
F RANÃOIS P ELSAERT
Woeful Diurnal Annotations, 1629
François Pelsaert described his account of the loss of the Batavia on the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia as his âwoeful diurnal annotationsâ.
After the shipwreck he took the pinnace, leaving most of the survivors on the islands, and made his way to Batavia (now Jakarta). In his absence these first Europeans to live in Australia turned on each otherâconspirators massacred 125 of their fellows, thereby proving that the Dutch could be every bit as barbarous and cruel as the Aborigines of their imaginings.
Pelsaert returned some months later to rescue the survivors and punish the miscreants. He was no deliberate explorer but this time he had more leisure to examine the nature of the strange islands where his ship had met disaster. The âcatsâ he encountered were tammar wallabies, the first members of the kangaroo family to be observed closely by Europeans.
On the 4th of June, it being Whitmonday, with a light, clear full moon, about two hours before daybreakâ¦I felt the shipâs rudder strike the rocks with a violent horrible shockâ¦I rushed up on deck, and found all the sails atop, the wind south-west. Our course during the night had been north-east by north, and we were now lying amidst thick foam. Still, at the moment, the breakers round the ship were not violent, but shortly after the sea was heard to run upon us with great vehemence on all sides.
When day broke, we found ourselves surrounded by cliffs and shoalsâ¦I saw no land that I thought would remain above water at high tide, except an island, which by estimation was fully three miles from the ship. I therefore sent the skipper to two small islets or cliffs in order to ascertain whether our men and part of our cargo could be landed there. About nine oâclock the skipper returned, informing me that it was well-nigh impossible to get through the rocks and cliffs, the pinnace running aground in one place, and the water being several fathom deep in another. As far as he could judge, the islands would remain above water at high tide. Therefore, moved by the loud lamentations raised on board by women, children, sick people and faint-hearted men, we thought it best first to land the greater part of our peopleâ¦
It was determined, as shown by the resolution, that we should try to find fresh water in the neighbouring islands or on the mainland coast in order to save their lives and our own; and that, if no water should be found, we should in that case at the mercy of God with the pinnace continue our voyage to Batavia, there to make known our calamitous and unheard-of disastersâ¦
November 1629âOn the 15th the wind was SSW , with seemingly fine weather. Therefore, in the name of God, we weighed anchor and set sail from these luckless Abrolhos for the mainland on an ENE courseâ¦The sea abounds in fish in these parts: they are mainly of three kinds, but very different in shape and taste from those caught on other coasts. All the islands about here are low-lying atolls or coral-islets and rocks, except two or threeâ¦
We found in these islands large numbers of a species of cats, which are very strange creatures; they are about the size of a hare, their head resembling the head of a civet-cat; the forepaws are very short, about the length of a finger, on which the animal has five small nails or fingers, resembling those of a monkeyâs forepaw. Its two hindlegs, on the contrary, are upwards of half an ell in length, and it walks on these only, on the flat of the heavy part of the leg, so that it does not run fast. Its tail is very long, like that of a
F RANÃOIS P ELSAERT
Woeful Diurnal Annotations, 1629
François Pelsaert described his account of the loss of the Batavia on the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia as his âwoeful diurnal annotationsâ.
After the shipwreck he took the pinnace, leaving most of the survivors on the islands, and made his way to Batavia (now Jakarta). In his absence these first Europeans to live in Australia turned on each otherâconspirators massacred 125 of their fellows, thereby proving that the Dutch could be every bit as barbarous and cruel as the Aborigines of their imaginings.
Pelsaert returned some months later to rescue the survivors and punish the miscreants. He was no deliberate explorer but this time he had more leisure to examine the nature of the strange islands where his ship had met disaster. The âcatsâ he encountered were tammar wallabies, the first members of the kangaroo family to be observed closely by Europeans.
On the 4th of June, it being Whitmonday, with a light, clear full moon, about two hours before daybreakâ¦I felt the shipâs rudder strike the rocks with a violent horrible shockâ¦I rushed up on deck, and found all the sails atop, the wind south-west. Our course during the night had been north-east by north, and we were now lying amidst thick foam. Still, at the moment, the breakers round the ship were not violent, but shortly after the sea was heard to run upon us with great vehemence on all sides.
When day broke, we found ourselves surrounded by cliffs and shoalsâ¦I saw no land that I thought would remain above water at high tide, except an island, which by estimation was fully three miles from the ship. I therefore sent the skipper to two small islets or cliffs in order to ascertain whether our men and part of our cargo could be landed there. About nine oâclock the skipper returned, informing me that it was well-nigh impossible to get through the rocks and cliffs, the pinnace running aground in one place, and the water being several fathom deep in another. As far as he could judge, the islands would remain above water at high tide. Therefore, moved by the loud lamentations raised on board by women, children, sick people and faint-hearted men, we thought it best first to land the greater part of our peopleâ¦
It was determined, as shown by the resolution, that we should try to find fresh water in the neighbouring islands or on the mainland coast in order to save their lives and our own; and that, if no water should be found, we should in that case at the mercy of God with the pinnace continue our voyage to Batavia, there to make known our calamitous and unheard-of disastersâ¦
November 1629âOn the 15th the wind was SSW , with seemingly fine weather. Therefore, in the name of God, we weighed anchor and set sail from these luckless Abrolhos for the mainland on an ENE courseâ¦The sea abounds in fish in these parts: they are mainly of three kinds, but very different in shape and taste from those caught on other coasts. All the islands about here are low-lying atolls or coral-islets and rocks, except two or threeâ¦
We found in these islands large numbers of a species of cats, which are very strange creatures; they are about the size of a hare, their head resembling the head of a civet-cat; the forepaws are very short, about the length of a finger, on which the animal has five small nails or fingers, resembling those of a monkeyâs forepaw. Its two hindlegs, on the contrary, are upwards of half an ell in length, and it walks on these only, on the flat of the heavy part of the leg, so that it does not run fast. Its tail is very long, like that of a
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