Adventures in Southern Seas | Page 3

born upon the island of Urk, in the Zuider
Zee, in the year 1596, and was brought up a fisher-lad until the coming
to the island of a priest, to whom my parents, ambitious for my
advancement, entrusted my education in the arts of reading and writing,
accomplishments in little vogue at this time. Hence it comes that I am
able to set down here a record of perils and adventures by sea and land
which may prove entertaining reading to those who have never
travelled beyond the limits of their own countries.

My parents, who had stinted themselves to provide my education,
placed me when I was eighteen years old in a merchant's office at
Amsterdam, where I became acquainted with Dirk Hartog, a famous
navigator, who, a year later, invited me to become his secretary and
engraver of charts on board the ship "Endraght", being then
commissioned for a voyage of discovery to the South, and having
obtained a reluctant consent from my master, De Decker, the merchant,
to Hartog's proposal I gladly abandoned the office desk for the sea.
The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492 had given
rise to a theory that a vast continent known as Terra Australis existed in
the South, and Portuguese and Spanish ships had made report from
time to time of this southern land. It was to confirm or dispel this belief
that the voyage of Dirk Hartog was made.
For many months after leaving Amsterdam we sailed south, touching at
some islands to obtain vegetable food and replenish our water-casks.
Worn out with hardship, our crew more than once showed signs of
mutiny. Sometimes for weeks together we lay becalmed in the tropics,
when the air hung like a pall of vapour from the sky, and the pitch
boiled and blistered in the seams of the deck-planks. In other seasons
we were driven by storm and stress. But at length, in spite of every
obstacle, an unbroken coast stretched before us far as the eye could
reach. For three days we sailed past verdure-covered hills, white, sandy
beaches, and bluff headlands, until Hartog felt assured the Great South
Continent was at last in very truth before him.
The day upon which Hartog determined to land was bright and fine; the
place a sandy beach upon which the waves broke in frothy spume. We
were all keen to be ashore after so long a spell of the sea, and I
reckoned myself in luck to be chosen as one of the boat's crew to land
the captain.
"Let Peter come," said Hartog when the boat was alongside. "I would
have him engrave a plate to be set in some safe place, so that it may be
known that I, Dirk Hartog, landed here, to any who may come after
me."

When we had come to the shore Hartog, taking the boat's crew with
him, set off inland, leaving me to my work. The plate was soon finished,
when I fastened it to a rock out of reach of the waves.
It bore the following inscription:
"1616
"On the 25th of October arrived here the ship 'Endraght,' of Amsterdam;
first supercargo Gilles Miebas Van Luck; Captain Dirk Hartog, of
Amsterdam. She set sail again on the 27th of the same month. Bantum
was second supercargo; Janstins first pilot.
"Peter Ecoores Van Bu, in the year 1616."
I engraved the date upon which the ship was to sail according to
directions given me by the captain, though whether the "Endraght" did
sail at that time I cannot say, by reason of an adventure which befell
me.
When I had finished my work I began to think in what manner I might
employ myself until my companions returned, and, perceiving a grove
of trees not far distant from where I stood, I determined to rest a while
in the shade. As I penetrated these silent forests I beheld sights wholly
novel. Parrots and paroquets flew among the trees, as also large white
birds with sulphur crests, the like of which I had never seen before.
Presently I came to a stream which took its course through a valley, and,
kneeling, I was about to quench my thirst when I felt a hand upon my
shoulder. Springing to my feet, I was confronted by a band of savages,
many of whom held their spears its though about to strike. They were
all quite naked, their bodies marked with white streaks. I tried to make
them understand I came as a friend, and endeavoured to retrace my
steps to the open, where I hoped my shipmates might see me and effect
a rescue, but I now perceived that whichever way I turned my path was
barred by these wild men. The savages now began to jabber