_Letter of the G.-G. and Counc. to the Managers of the E.I.C., October
31, 1728._
...On the 26th of April there arrived here quite unexpectedly with the
patchiallang de Veerman a note from the ex-skipper and the subcargo of
the Zealand ship Zeewijk, Jan Steijns and Jan Nebbens, written from Sunda
Strait...informing us that the said ship, after sailing from the Cape of
Good Hope [*] on April 21 [1727], had on June 9 following run aground on
the reef situated before the islands called Fredrik Houtmans Abriolhos
near the South-land in 29° S.L., also known as the Tortelduijf islands;
that favoured by good weather the men had saved from the wreck all kinds
of necessaries, and with the loosened woodwork had constructed a kind of
vessel, with which they had set out from there on the 26th of March, and
arrived in the aforesaid strait on the 21st of April last...
[* The ship had sailed from the Netherlands, November 7, 1726.]
[We] have found...not only that the ex-skipper Jan Steijns has, against
his positive instructions and against the protests of the steersmen, too
recklessly sailed near the South-land, and thereby been the cause of this
disaster, but also that he has attempted to impose upon his superiors by
falsified journals, hoping thereby, if possible, to conceal his grievous
mistake...
The situation of the islands on whose outermost reef the ship Zeewijk has
run aground, is shown by the annexed small chart [*]. They lie out of
sight of the South-land, and are partly overgrown with brushwood, edible
vegetables, etc...here have been discovered not only a number of wells
dug by human hands, but also certain vestiges of a Dutch ship, presumably
also lost on the reef aforesaid...
[* To the Netherlands were sent "two charts of the situation of the Reef,
and of the islands aforementioned" (charts 16 and 17 _below_).]
[Map No. 16. Kaarte betreffende de schipbreuk der Zeewijk (Chart,
concerning the shipwreck of the Zeewijk) 1727.]
[Map No. 17. Kaarte betreffende de schipbreuk der Zeewijk (Chart,
concerning the shipwreck of the Zeewijk) 1727.]