ESSAYS IN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY 200 copies printed ESSAYS IN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ON KINDRED SUBJECTS BY JAMES R. McCLYMONT M.A., AUTHOR OF 'ESSAYS ON EARLY ORNITHOLOGY ' LONDON BERNARD OUARITCH LTD. ii GRAFTON STREET, NEW BOND STREET 1921 V - \ I \3 € CONTENTS PACE Hernando de Grijalva i Terra Australis and Jave la Grande . . 9 A Note on the Wreck of the Tryall . . 19 A Chapter of Explanations . . . . 25 The Zoological Notions of Galvao . . 31 APPENDICES Inscriptions on Maps relating to Terra Australis 41 Three Letters relating to the Wreck of the Tryall ...... 43 HERNANDO DE GRIJALVA HERNANDO DE GRIJALVA or Grijalvarez is a lesser light in the firmament of oceanic discovery but as a satellite of Cortes and, seeing that his name is associated with that of Pizarro, it is befitting that the little that is known of him should be remembered. We first hear of Grijalva in 1533 in which year he was ordered by Cortes to command one of two vessels which were to make a voyage in the South Sea. The ship of Grijalva was the San Lorenzo ; the flag-ship was the Conception, which appears to have been commanded by one Mendoza, and both vessels are said to have been owned by the Marquis del Valle. There is an account of this voyage in the Spanish Archives of the Indies which appears from internal evidence to have been written by an officer of the San Lorenzo. From his narrative it appears that the vessels sailed from Santiago near Tehuantepec on the 31st of October, 1533. On the day of departure it was found that the San Lorenzo could not keep pace with the Con- ception and was falling behind when the Conception signalled to her to go her own way. The vessels then parted company and of the Concepcion we hear no more. The San Lorenzo made several attempts to rejoin her consort but never succeeded in doing so. Her course was a devious one. Finally, after holding for some days on a southerly course, she turned northwards, apparently in accordance with the Instructions received from Cortes regarding the course to be followed if Grijalva should be separated from the other ship. It would appear that the aim of Grijalva now was to find an 4 Hernando de Grijalva island on which ships making the voyage from New Spain to the Moluccas or to the Philippines might find water. An island was eventually discovered and as it was found to be in 20 20' S. lat. and to be distant from the mainland one hundred leagues of which the writer reckoned twenty-five to the degree, it was in all probability one of the Revillagidos. Grijalva named it Santo Tomas because it was discovered on the 20th of December, the eve of the festival of St. Thomas. Only a few barrels of brackish water could be obtained on the island. From this island Grijalva returned to Acapulco. We are indebted to Galvao for having preserved the record of a second voyage undertaken by Grijalva in 1536, like the first by command of Cortes, with the object of making discoveries in the Pacific Ocean between New Spain and the Moluccas, ' along the equinoctial line ' as the Instructions ran, showing the supreme disregard of local climatic conditions of an autocrat accustomed to be blindly obeyed. Grijalva must have found it impossible to comply literally with these Instructions. Whether Galvao con- sidered them practicable or not we do not know. He at all events deserves credit for his attempt to reproduce the native names of islands visited by Grijalva. These names are certainly disguised in the process of reproduction as was inevitable. If a child were given a handful of beads and were told to string them and that there was only one right way of stringing them but was not told what that right way was, the child would have great difficulty in deciding in what manner the beads were to be strung But if the child were told further that the right way to string the beads was to commence with the smallest bead and to end with the largest and that all the intermediate beads were to be arranged in the order of their sizes, the difficulty would disappear or at least would be greatly lessened. Hernando de Grijalva 5 We are in a similar predicament if we attempt to identify the islands which Galvao names. Fortunately there is a clue to their identity as there was a clue to the order in which the child was to string the beads, for we know that the islands follow one another in a general sequence from east to west, for Grijalva began his voyage at San Miguel de Tangaraga in Peru and ended it at the Moluccas. Here then are the beads which Galvao gives us to string : — O Acea, Haime, Coroa, Seri, Meosu, Bufu, Guelles. If we remember that Galvao corrupts Gresik into Agacai and Ortattan into Lutatao, we shall be prepared to find that considerable changes have been made in the names of these islands also. Two ships were prepared for this voyage. One of them was placed under the command of Grijalva, who was also the leader of the expedition ; the other ship was commanded by a certain Alvarado, a fidalgo of whom we hear no more. Before directing their course to the Spice Islands, Grijalva was to sail to Peru in order to convey reinforcements to Francisco Pizarro, who was insufficiently provided with troops to offer effectual resistance to the Inca Mangro who had attacked him with one hundred thousand men and had killed his brother Juan Pizarro and four hundred Spaniards. Galvao tells us that, after leaving Peru, Grijalva sailed for more than one thousand leagues without seeing land and that he subsequently arrived at an island in 2° N. lat., which island our author supposes to be situated at the distance of five hundred leagues from the Moluccas. The width of the South Pacific at this point would thus be in the opinion of Galvao somewhat over fifteen hundred leagues. But, if we reckon twenty-five leagues to the degree, the distance from Ecuador to the Moluccas is about four thousand leagues and about two thousand four hundred 6 Hernando de Grijalva leagues if we reckon fifteen leagues to the degree. I do not know of any island which fulfils these indications and we are constrained to suppose that O Acea was either an island of the Galapagos Group or a small isolated rock. Keeping in mind the simile of the bead necklace, we pro- ceed to the second and third islands discovered by Grijalva, or perhaps we ought to say, at which Grijalva cast anchor. The second island, to which the name Isla dos Pescadores was given, may have been an island of the Low Archipelago. The third island is Haime which very probably was Vahine, for all the vowels of the two names correspond one with another, H is mute in Portuguese, V and U are interchangeable in various tongues, M is easily confounded with N. This island is also known as Huaheine and is one of the Society Islands ; it lies approximately in 1 6° 40' S. lat. and 151° W. long. It is reassuring to meet at last with so well-known a name as Apia, and although Apia is a town we can readily imagine that the mistake of supposing it to be an island arose through misunderstanding the information obtained from the Samoans. Apia is the principal town in Upolu. From the Samoan Grijalva appears to have directed his course to the Fiji Islands for we next find him at Seri and Coroa. If I understand Galvao aright, Coroa lay one degree to the north of Seri. The islands which appear best to fulfil the necessary conditions are Nairai and Koro. They lie due north and south of one another about one degree apart. The change of initial letter — S instead of N — may be a dialectical variation or it may be a misprint. It is most regrettable that we know nothing of the course followed by Grijalva after quitting Coroa until he reaches an island in the Papuan region. All this long space of ocean, studded in many parts with islands, is a complete blank in the narration of Hernando dc Grijalva 7 Galvao. We do not know whether Grijalva sailed along the north coast of New Guinea or passed through Torres Straits in which case he would have preceded Torres by seventy years, If he passed through the Straits he took the shortest course, but the northerly position of the next island which is mentioned seems rather to indicate that he followed the northerly course to the north of New Guinea where Saavedra had been about eight years previously. The island in question is Meosu or Meousum, as it appears in the English translation of Galvao. Galvao informs us that the inhabitants of this island and of others visited by Grijalva were Papuans and he gives them a very bad character indeed as cannibals and wizards. Meosu may be Mios Su, in about o° ii' S. lat. off the north-west coast of New Guinea or Miosnum in Geelvink Bay. The position of the former island corresponds best with that of Meosu, which lay under the line. Bufu is unrecognisable,* as is also the next island Os Gueles or Os Guelles. As the latter island or group of islands lay in i'N. lat. on the same parallel as Ternate I suppose we must under- stand Gilolo by this name. Galvao does not lose such an excellent opportunity of urging his claim to recognition as a benefactor of his country and states in forcible language that the natives of the Moluccas were so well disposed to him as Governor of the Spice Islands that they gave no encouragement to the Spanish mariners and that they would not even allow them to land but insisted that they should acquaint Galvao with their arrival and should not land without his permission. Thus ends the account of this important voyage for which we are indebted to the industry of a conscientious chronicler. * Bufu may be a misprint for Buru. TERRA AUSTRALIS AND JAVE LA GRANDE IN this short dissertation I purpose discussing certain pro- blematical features in Maps of the World designed by Gerardus Mercator and Pierre Desceliers. Gerard de Cremer, who is generally styled Gerardus Mercator — the name which he himself adopts on his carto- graphical and literary works — was born at Rupelmonde in East Flanders in 15 12. In 1538 he executed a double cordiform map of the world dedicated to Joannes Drosius, which is (or was lately) in a private library in New York.* And at Louvain in 1 541 he dedicated to Nicolaus Perrenot Granvella, Imperial Chancellor of Charles V., a terrestial sphere, examples of which are preserved in the (formerly) Imperial and Royal Library in Vienna, the Royal Library of Belgium, and the Grand-Ducal Library of Saxe- Weimar, f In 1559 Mercator was appointed Cosmographer to the Duke of Juliers and Cleves and thence- forward his cartographical and literary work was accomplished chiefly at Duisburg, which at that period was attached to the Duchy of Cleves. It was at Duisburg that Mercator executed the large map of the world, issued in 1569, intituled 'Nova et aucta orbis terrae descriptio ad usum navigantium emendate accomodata'. J Examples of this work are in the Bibliotheque Nationale and the City Library in Breslau. In 1587 it was republished by order of Rumoldus Mercator with the title ' Orbis * A. E. Nordenskiold, Facsimile Atlas to the early history of cartography, XLIII. Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 1878, p. 195, f. f Sphere tcrrestre et sphere celeste de Gerard Mercator de Rupelmonde, Bruxelles, 1875. I Joniard, Les Monuments de la Geographie, XXI. 12 Terra Australis and Jave la Grande terrae compendiosa descriptio.' An example of it was in the possession of Baron Nordenskiold. In 1594 appeared at Duisburg the * Atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi ' and in 1595, — the year after that in which Mercator died — a supplementary tome was published at Diisseldorf. One problematical feature in maps of the world by Mercator is the series of newly discovered countries which is delineated near their lower margin and designated collectively Terra Australis Incognita. We may regard the Terra Australis of Gerardus Mercator as a concatenated series of insets of newly discovered islands and tracts of continental land, the geographical position of which could only be approximately ascertained or could not be ascertained at all by the cartographer. That a large continent must exist in the southern hemisphere was postulated by geographers of the school of Ptolemy ; such a continent was held to be necessary in order to counterbalance the great mass of land in the northern hemisphere and Gualterus Ghymnius affirms that Mercator adhered to this theory. His drafts of the land portion of the southern hemisphere may have been influenced by it. The voyages of Alvaro de Saavedra in 1528 and 1529 and of Ynigo Ortiz de Roda in 1545 may have given occasion to the presentment of New Guinea in the world -maps of Mercator. It is represented as an island but its insular character is declared to be a matter of uncertainty. From a point con- tiguous to the supposed strait the coast line of a Magellanica Regio trends southward and eastward to Tierra del Fuego. We learn from the inscription on the Magellanica Regio that it was so called by some because it was discovered by Magellan. It is therefore probably the east coast of South America, placed Terra Australis and Jave la Grande 13 considerably to the left of the true position of that region. To the left of the Tierra del Fuego we find a Promontorium Terrae Australis and a Terra Psittacorum. There is an inscription upon the latter, the import of which is that the Terra Psittacorum was a land towards which Portuguese had been driven by wind * in 1500 during a voyage to Calicut, and that the name had been bestowed upon it because of the large size of its parrots which attained a length of three cubits.f The Indian fleet which sailed in 1500 was under the command of Pedraluarez Cabral and we know from various sources that the Land of Parrots ('Terra d li Papaga') was one of the names bestowed upon Brazil, the eastern coast of which Cabral discovered in the year above mentioned. We read, for example, in a letter from Pietro Pasqualigo to the Seigneury of Venice, published in the Diarii de Marino Sanuto \ that the land discovered by Corte- Real was believed to be connected with the land of Papaga, and Schoner in his globe constructed in 1520 delineates 'America vel Brasilia sive Papagalli Terra.' It is therefore probable that the Terra Psittacorum is a portion of the coast of Brazil. Two bearings of the Promontorium Terrae Australis are quoted by Mercator from the Suma de Geographia of Fernandez de Enciso, which bears the imprint ' Sevilla, 15 19'. This headland was situated 600 leagues S.E.^ S. of Cape Saint Augustine, 450 leagues W. of the Cape of Good Hope and was in 42° S. lat. It is evidently impossible to reconcile all these data ; the most reliable datum is the latitude, which may result from an observa- tion, whilst the distances must have been estimated only. The * ' Libegio vcnto appulsis.* f Paesi nouamente retrouati, cap. CXXV. These birds were most pro- bably macaws. I Tom. IV*. fasc. iv. pp. 200-201. i 4 Terra Australis and Jave la Grande words Promontorium Terrae Australis (Headland of southern land) suggest a pre-Magellanic discovery of land in the south as the bearings indicate the southern portion of the American continent as the region in which this headland was situated and the latitude is approximately that of the Gulf of Saint Matthias. The globes of johann Schoner of the years 15 15 and 1520 demonstrate that a strait was supposed to exist in or near 42° S. before Magellan departed on his voyage of discovery. In the southern part of the Indian Ocean Ribero had placed on the Carta Universal made at Seville, in 1529, an ' Ya de los Romeros' (Island of the Pilgrims). It is evidently the island the discovery of which is recorded by Francisco Albo in his derrotero of the voyage of Magellan and of the Vittoria on the 1 8th day of March, 1522. Albo enters the latitude as 3 8° S., which is nearly the actual latitude of Amsterdam Island. The reason for the name ' Ya de los Romeros ' is not evident. But we may conjecture with great probability that it was bestowed in allusion to the fact that after leaving Buru and when approaching Mallua (which is probably Ombay) very bad weather from the south imperilled the safety of the little ship and the company vowed a pilgrimage to ' La Virgen de la Guia.' Mercator places this island in the world-map of the year 1569 on the same meridian as the easternmost point of Madagascar and consider- ably west of its true position. An inscription on the adjacent Terra Australis asserts that a strong tidal current ran from west to east and from east to west between Madagascar and Los Romeros, so that the navigation of that sea was extremely difficult. Mercator quotes Marco Polo in support of the statement and even identifies Los Romeros with the islands which were visited by the rukh. But the islands visited by the rukh lay to the Terra Aitstralis and Jave la Grande i e south of Zanzibar and the current which, according to Marco Polo, impeded navigation thence to India was, apparently, the Mozambique Current. There is nothing which calls for further comment until the meridian of the west of New Guinea is reached, at which point the coast-line of the southern pseudo- continent diverges to the northward to ' Magellanica Regio '. It bears an inscription to the effect that this region is of vast extent as is evident from the writings of Marco Polo and of Ludovico Varthema and certain names inscribed upon it, such as Locach and Maletur, are derived from the Book of Marco Polo. These are believed to be ancient names of Siamese and Malay countries far removed from the positions in which Marco Polo placed them. Locach is separated from Java Major — the modern Java — by a narrow strait, and Java Minor, which is apparently a second Sumatra, is in a deep bay east of Maletur. Jave la Grande is a new element which enters into and chiefly characterises the southern pseudo-continent as it is delineated in three mappemondes designed and drawn by Pierres Desceliers. The most informative pronouncement regarding Jave la Grande is perhaps that which is to be found in the ' Cosmographie ' of Jan Alfonce, a pilot, sea-captain and cosmographer who was born at Saintonge near Cognac and who followed the calling of a seaman for about forty-eight years from 1496 or 1497 onwards. In 1542 he was in Canada with Roberval and in the following years was charged by that leader to attempt the discovery of a North- West passage from the east side of North America to China. He made this attempt, but there is no satisfactory record of the results of his mission. In 1544 he abandoned the calling of a sailor and, conjointly with a sea-captain ot Honfleur, Paullin Secalar by name, wrote the ' Cosmographie avec espere et regime du soleil et du nord.' In 1 547 a licence was granted to Jean de 1 6 Terra Australis and Jave la Grande Marnaf to print ' Les voyages avantureux du capitaine Jan Alfonce', and in 1559, that work was published. Alfonce was probably dead before the work appeared. In the ' Cosmographie he affirms that * La grande Jayve ' is a country in the southern hemisphere and that it is contiguous to the land of the Straits of Magellan. Alfonce apparently was of opinion that land was continuous from Tierra del Fuego to the southern part of Asia. Vestiges of the belief that America was an eastward prolongation of the Asiatic continent still exist in the names ' West Indies' and Indians' when that designation is applied to the aborigines or North or of South America. ' Java Major ' or the ' Terre de Jave la Grande ' is mapped in the mappemondes of several French cartographers of the first half of the sixteenth century. One of the earliest and most skilful of them was Pierres Desceliers. Desceliers was born towards the end of the fifteenth cenury ; he is mentioned by the name Pierre Deschelliers in 1537 in the Archives of the Department of Seine- Inferieur. He was a priest and resided at Arques — the little town near the confluence of the Aulne and the Arques, made well-known in history by the victory which Henry IV. gained there over the Army of the League in 1589. The information of which we are possessed regarding him is but meagre. It is recorded that he drew a plan of all the forests in France by order of the Duke of Guise and that he gave gratuitous instruction in hydrography to a small circle of pupils. Amongst his early works were a celestial and a terrestrial sphere. That he designed and painted a mappemonde in 1546 we know ; it is now in a private library. Another mappemonde is dated 1550 and bears the signature of its author thus : ' Faicte A Arques Par Pierres Desceliers Pbre: Lan: 1550.' It was purchased by Signor Cristoforo Negri of Padua in 1842 from a family of Spanish Terra A list rails and Jave la Grande 17 refugees and was acquired subsequently by the Trustees of the British Museum.* A third mappemonde drawn and painted by Desceliers is (or was lately) the property of M. 1'Abbe de Bubics of Vienne. On it are inscribed the words ' Faicte A Arques Par Pierres Desceliers Presbtre, 1553.'! Desceliers had several com- peers ; in order to avoid prolixity I mention their names only ; they were Jean Rotz, Nicholas Vallard, Guillaume le Testu and Nicholas Desliens. Jean Rotz appears to have been the first to propound his opinions, for his ' Book of Idrography ' bears the date 1542. An anonymous mappemonde which bears the arms of the Dauphin is preserved in the British Museum and is believed to be of still earlier date. All these cartographers agree in delineating a country which they call 'Jave la Grande ' to the west of South America although they differ considerably one from another in matters of detail relating to it. In one important respect Jave la Grande differs from the Terra Australis delineated by Mercator and by Ortelius. If we examine a facsimile of it by transmitted light, or if we view the image of it in a mirror we perceive that it is an incomplete South America reversed and removed to the westward so as to occupy a position on the same meridians as Sumatra, Java, and certain easterly islands of the Malay Archipelago. Only the outlines, however, of the northern and eastern coasts of South America are reversed ; the written characters designating names of places are not reversed. It is not difficult to recognise in at least one place-name the name of a South American country. I * French Maps of the World, drawn in 1546 and 1550. With an Introduc- tion by C. H. Coote, Privately printed, 1898. f For biographical information relating to Alfonce and Desceliers I have con- sulted Les Navigations franchises by M. Margry and Un Ge"ographe francais du XVme siecle retrouve. (Extrait du Bulletin de la Societe de Geographic Septcmbre 1876) by M. Make Brun. c iB Terra Australis and Jave la Grande allude to ' Baye bresill ' — a name which appears on the mappe- mondes of Desceliers in a position which corresponds approxi- mately to that of Bahia de Todos Santos. It was to this part of the coast that Norman merchant-adventurers came in search of novelties soon after the visit of Cabral, and La Popeliniere notes the fact that a river near Bahia de Todos Santos was named ' R. de Brasil '.* Worthy of note also are the names of several islands situated to the north of that part of the coast-line which, I believe, represents the northern sea-board of South America. The names to which I refer appear on the anonymous mappemonde commonly called the Harleyan map and believed to have been executed in the year 1536 or thereabouts. To the north-west of a 'Baye perdu', the position of which is approximately that of the Gulf of Paria, is a small Island the name of which I decipher as * Ye de S. Xtofer ' or Island of Saint Christopher (St. Kitts) and to the right of the Ye de S. Xtofer is another island or cluster of islands to which is attached a name which I read * Ye de Lucayos ' (the Bahamas). But I do not rely on the correct deciphering of these names for evidence of the identity of Jave la Grande with the north and east coasts of South America, but upon the definition of ■ La grande Jayve ' which is given by Jan Alfonce, the analogies which exist between ' Jave la Grande ' and the ' Magellanica Regio ' and between Jave la Grande and the c Ter. australis incognita ' or * insula occidentalis America ' of Cornells de Jode,t and finally upon the evident general resemblance which the outlines of Jave la Grande as seen by transmitted light bear to those of the north and east coasts of South America. * Lcs trois mondes, III, fol. 20 v. f See Appendix A, A NOTE ON THE WRECK OF THE TRYALL ABOUT the beginning of the year 1622 the Honourable Directors of the English Company trading to the East Indies began to be anxious about one of their ships, the Tryalh which had sailed for Jacatra in the previous year laden with provisions and equipment and carrying also a sum of money for the English factory at that Javan port. They were thus anxious for they had received a letter from the President of the local board of Managers informing them that the TryallhaA not arrived and was then overdue. The letter is dated January 11, 1622, from Batavia. At this date provisions were already beginning to run short. President Fursland was manifestly unaware that the Tryall had not yet reached the Cape of Good Hope, from which she only took her departure on the 19th of March. She couid not therefore arrive at Jacatra before the month of June. The passage from the Cape to Java was in those days rightly regarded as one of peculiar danger both on account of the islets in the Southern Ocean and because of the danger oFrunning too far to the eastward and being wrecked on reefs or sandbanks off the coast of Australia, such as Houtman's Abrolhos. English captains therefore when they made the voyage to Java for the first time endeavoured to obtain the services of a pilot acquainted with the course to be followed. John Brooke, the master of the Try all, was making this voyage for the first time as also were his mates. He therefore endeavoured to obtain a pilot at the Cape and this may have been the cause or one of the causes of the delay. At the Cape was also the ship Charles, John Bickell, master, and Brooke endeavoured to 22 A Note on the Wreck of t lie ' Try air engage one of his mates, but in this he was unsuccessful as the mate required greater remuneration than Brooke was disposed to give. He therefore decided to proceed without a pilot and weighed anchor from the Cape on the 1 9th of March. Nothing of moment occurred until the 25th of May, on the night of which, at eleven o'clock, the ship struck a sunken rock and immediately began to fill. This accident could hardly have happened in daylight in fine weather. There were islands in the vicinity, as was observed on the following morning, and these would have recommended caution, even had there been no breakers to indicate the sunken rock. Only two boats were lowered. Apparently the 'Tryall only carried two boats, — a long boat which took forty-five men off the wreck and a skiff which took ten men, including the captain who, contrary to the best traditions of the British Merchant Service, appears to have been in haste to abandon his ship. Thus it came about that no fewer than ninety-seven souls were left to look after themselves and all perished with the ship. There has been little difference of opinion amongst carto- graphers regarding the latitude of the rocks on which the 'Try all made shipwreck but great difference of opinion regarding their longitude. This circumstance accords with all we know of the knowledge of navigation possessed by navigators of the period in which the Tryall was wrecked. Richard Fursland, President of the English Factory in Java, writes from Batavia to Thomas Mills at Pulicat on the icth of July, 1622, 'The long hoped for Trial, laden with provisions, was lost upon a ledge of rocks, 300 leagues from hence in 22° latitude ' # and the Governor- General and Council of the Dutch Indies write to the Directors * Calendar of State Papers. East Indies 1622-1624. London, 1878, p. 48, para. 1 10. A Note on the Wreck of the ' Try air 23 of the Dutch East India Company from Batavia on the 6th of September of the same year that the survivors from the wreck had lost and abandoned their ship with ninety-seven men and the cargo she had taken in on certain rocks situated in latitude 20 io' South in the longitude of the western extremity of Java near a number of islands lying apart south-east and north-west 30 miles north-north-east of a certain island laid down in our charts in 22° S. lat. ('Dese clippen syn by verscheyden gebroocken eylanden leggende, zeer wyt en breet, Z. Oost en N. West, streckende 30 mylen N.N.O. van seecker eylandt, by d'onse op 22 graden Zuyder breete in de caerte geleyt'.)* The indication of the longitude of the Trial Rocks as that of the " western ' extremity of Java may have caused cartographers to place the Trials to the westward of their true position at a great distance from the Australian coast. Thus the 'Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht' of the year 1627 and the 'Kaartvan het Zuidland,' dated 161 8 but containing additions of a later date, both executed by Hessel Gerritsz, place the Trials in open ocean far to the westward of the Land of the Eendracht.f So also does a chart by Johann Kepplerand Philip Eckebrecht made at Niirnberg in 1630. J This westerly position is that in which the Trial Rocks are placed in various maps of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries both Dutch and English. Let us revert to the Letter from the Governor-General and Council of the Dutch Indies to the Directors of the Dutch East India Company dated September 6th, 1622. The island in 22° S. lat. therein mentioned is probably North-West Cape * Heeres, The part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia, pp. 17-18. f Op. cit. Charts No. 4 and No. 5. t C. H. Coote, Remarkable Maps, II. 8. 24 A Note on the Wreck 0/ the ' Try air delineated as an island. One hundred and twenty nautical miles approximately to the north-north-east of that Cape is the Dampier Archipelago, and hence we may conclude that it was on a sunken rock in or near that archipelago that the Tryall was wrecked. The circumstances of the wreck taking place during the night of a month of the southern winter and of the surprize and confusion that resulted on the ill-fated ship from the unexpected and sudden catastrophe and the inadequate means of escape sufficiently explain why the survivors could furnish so few reliable data regarding the position of the rock on which the vessel struck. The opinion which I have expressed regarding its position is supported by the Admiralty Chart of the North- West Coast of Australia from Bedout Island to Cape Cuvier for on that Chart the ' Tryal Rks ' are to be found about midway between the Monte Bello Islands and Barrow Island approximately in 20 35' S. lat. and 115 27' E. long. A CHAPTER OF EXPLANATIONS THE origin of the tale of the roc or rukh is a subject which has given rise to much speculation. Commentators have explored the animal kingdom and not the animal kingdom only but the vegetable kingdom also in order to discover the rukh or merely a fragment of its wing. Some of the habits of the rukh remind one of the ossifrage which is said to derive its name from a habit of carrying bones to a great height and of dropping them upon rocks and of then descending upon the broken bone and extracting the marrow and the African* Bearded Vulture is said to drop land tortoises in this manner. There are etymological as well as ornithological difficulties to be explained in connection with the rukh as described by Marco Polo. ' Olifant ' does not necessarily mean elephant. And if it be objected that the French text of Marco Polo as edited by Pauthier has ' olifans ' not ' olifant ' I reply that the difference is immaterial for both forms are derived from ( elephans.' ' Olifant ' in old French signified either a hunting- horn or ivory. That an eagle should fly away with a hunting-horn would certainly be a curious circumstance but by no means physically impossible. Moreover we have to con- sider that the transition from ' ivory ' to ' bone ' is but a slight one and that we would not be doing great violence to the sig- nification of ' olifant ' or ' olifans ' if we regarded it as equivalent to ' bone.' As for the immense size of the rukh, it appears to me probable enough that ' pas ' has somehow slipped into the text and that the original reading may have been ' pies ' or ' pes. 28 A Chapter of Explanations 1 Pies ' occurs a little further on in the Pauthier text. The length of the quill-feathers of the rukh would then be twelve feet instead of twelve paces — a length of wing which would still be nearly double that of the lammergeier so that we cannot altogether rid ourselves of the mythical element in the narrative or, perhaps we ought to say, of the tendency to exaggeration which is characteristic of savage races in Africa and elsewhere. An inscription on the Map of Fra Mauro has often been quoted as another allusion to the rukh which is therein styled the ' Crocho,'* and which is said to inhabit the neighbourhood of the Cabo di Diab the geographical position of which corre- sponds roughly to the position of Cape Corrientes although the Cabo di Diab appears on Fra Mauro's Map as the southern extremity of the African continent because it was the most southerly point of land on the east coast of Africa which the map-maker had any cognizance of. With regard to the meaning of the name ' Diab ' I would suggest that it may be a contraction of c diabolo,' and that by the * diabolo ' of this cape the rukh or crocho may be intended. I have been taken to task by critics for asserting that more than thirteen ships formed the fleet which Cabral commanded, because King Manuel wrote a letter to the Sovereigns of Spain in which it is stated that the fleet of Cabral consisted of thirteen ships. These critics lose sight of the facts that the ships of the royal navy of Portugal, at the period when this voyage took place, were armed merchantmen, and that it was of the ships of the royal navy only that King Manuel was likely to take account in his letter to the Catholic Sovereigns. His statement does not exclude the possibility of vessels owned by mercantile companies or by individuals having joined the royal fleet for the sake of * The identity of the crocho with the rukh of Marco Polo cannot be proved. A Chapter of Explanations 29 convoy, and we know that the permission to do so was at times accorded by royal letters. I can put this matter of the number of ships in the fleet of Cabral in yet another way. Let us suppose that a squadron of vessels, the number of which has been erroneously stated to be thirteen, leaves Liverpool for American ports. Two of the vessels return to the Mersey in consequence of damages received in a collision, three others are sunk by submarines, seven reach New York and six reach Boston. One would expect that the most careless reporter would perceive that the squadron could not possibly have consisted of only thirteen ships, but that there must have been eighteen ships in it. In a similar manner I have shown that there must have been more than thirteen ships in the fleet commanded by Cabral. And yet the critics refuse to believe it. The occurrence of the name ' Jesus ' at the beginning of the Instructions to Cabral may have awakened some curiosity. The name was given to a certain large size of paper used for State documents, the watermark of which was the letters I H S. On page 27 of Vincents Ahes Pinfon, in the Letters Patent conferring the title of ' fidalgo ' upon the descendants of a member of the Pinion family, the name ' Cerdena' occurs and in the same document the name ' Cerdania.' I am of the opinion now that ' Cerdena ' is Sardinia but that ' Cerdania ' is Cerdagne for the Cerdagne was subject to the Counts of Barcelona, and it is coupled with that city in the document in question. It was subject to the Counts of Barcelona until, with the remainder of Catalonia, it was ceded to Aragon. The parrakeets of the Island of Gola of Crozet still remain a mystery. The Gola Island off the west coast of Ireland can hardly be the island to which Crozet alludes and yet I can learn 30 A Chapter of Explanations of no other Gola Island.* One could almost imagine that some inexperienced observer had mistaken a crossbill for a parrakeet. By ' aigrettes blanches et noires ' it is uncertain whether Crozet meant pied egrets or egrets, some of which were black and others white. If the latter, reef-herons in their two phases are indicated ; if the former, Crozet may have mistaken Australian stilts for egrets. * There is a ' Golo ' in the Philippine Islands to which possibly Crozet may allude. THE ZOOLOGICAL NOTIONS OF ANTONIO GALVAO NOT a few ancient chimeras finally disappear in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ; others wane or become bedimmed. Creatures of flesh and blood, warm or cold, take their place. We owe something to Antonio Galvao for this advancement in human knowledge, for science it can hardly be called. If it will not add greatly to exact knowledge to search his pages for early records, we shall at all events by so doing pay our homage to a conscientious old writer and a most estimable servant of his king and country whose services were not appreciated at their true worth. Into Galvao's history I need not enter at great length. He was one of Earth's good men who cruelly discovered the evanescent character of human eminence. Born in Lisbon in 1503, Galvao entered the service of Joao III. at an early age and sailed for India in 1527. Diu appears to have been his first place of residence in the East and that for about six years. He was then appointed by the Viceroy Dom Nunho da Cunha to be Capitao-mor or Governor of the Moluccas and his task was no easy one for he had not only to make Portuguese authority paramount in the face of the counter claims of the Spaniards but also to reconcile the natives to the sway of the foreign intruders. He governed the Spice Islands for six or seven years and the whole duration of his residence in the East was about thirteen years, namely from 1527 to 1540. When Galvao undertook the government of the Moluccas the petty kings of Ternate, Tidore, Batchian and Gilolo had cast aside their several quarrels and had united against the Portuguese D 34 The Zoological Notions of Antonio Galvao with the object of driving them out of the islands. But Galvao with only one hundred and thirty men defeated their united forces and established Portuguese supremacy at least for a time. Francisco de Sousa Tavares relates of him that he not only spent his private means in promulgating the Catholic religion in the islands but also refrained from adding to them by engaging in the spice trade on his own account in addition to superintending it in the interest of the State. This conduct of Galvao is adduced as a proof of probity unknown on the part of any Portuguese governor of the Spice Islands who preceded or followed him. We find Galvao again in Lisbon in 1540 hoping for a due recognition of his services. But detraction had preceded him and detractors had done their utmost to ruin his reputation. He appears also to have been in feeble health. Being reduced almost to want he sought and found a refuge in the Royal Hospital of Lisbon in which he was an inmate for seventeen years until his death in 1557. AH the appeals for a pension which he frequently addressed to the king remained fruitless and his only legacy was the manuscript of his treatise on the discoveries of all time up to the year 1550 which was published posthumously by his friend Tavares. According to some authorities however, one edition of it appeared during the author's life in 1555. No copies of that edition are known to exist. ' The Zoological Notions of Antonio Galvao ' is a convenient title for this essay but I do not by that title wish my readers to understand that Galvao was himself the originator of the notions which we are about to examine. He was rather a recorder of the popular notions of the people amongst whom he lived and of the travellers whose experiences were known to him. The Zoological Notions of Antonio Galvao 35 He does not appear to have travelled much even within the Malay Archipelago. Ternate, Tidore and Gilolo were no doubt known to him and it is most probable that on the voyage from India to the Moluccas he visited Malacca, Java and the Banda Islands. He may also have visited Amboyna and Ceram. But there is no evidence to show that he had visited New Guinea and the islands of Waygiou and Salwatti appear to have lain beyond his ken. He is thus rather a mirror of the zoological ignorance of his time than a new luminary. And yet it must be admitted that in a few instances his record is remarkably prophetic of the conclusions arrived at by modern research. Thus his treatise is a landmark. Few biological questions have been more keenly debated than that concerning the parturition of marsupials and the nutrition of their young. It is not a little surprising to find that Galvao was better informed on these subjects than many other writers for several centuries after his time. His ideas are set forth in his account of the American opussums. They are nearer to the truth than the observations of Pelsaert on Australian marsupials about eighty years later.* In the American animal which is said to be perhaps a beast, perhaps a fish, which lays eggs like a hen, which is amphibious in its habits, climbs trees and has feet like those of a lizard we should doubtless recognise neither a beast nor a fish but a reptile, — in short an iguana. The monatim is evidently the manatee, the reverso is akin to the porcupine fish, the cocoyo a firefly. Another insect, smaller than a flea and known as the 'nigu,' introduced itself under the finger-nails * Those who are curious to know the details of the two accounts will find that of Galvao in the Discoveries of the World (Hakluyt Society 1862) p. 91, and that of Pelsaert in The part borne by the Dutch in the discovery of Australia by Dr. J. E. Heeres, p. 61. 36 The Zoological Notions of Antonio Galvao and, breeding there, produced festering sores or even ultimately caused the fingers to drop off. 'Nigu' is perhaps an error, and ' chigu ' or ' chegoe ' the true reading. The chegoe is the sand-flea. (Sarcopsylla penetrans.) All these creatures inhabited the islands of the Caribbean Sea or the continental coasts ad- jacent to it or the waters of that sea. The residence of Galvao in the Moluccas is not the occasion of a lengthy description of the birds, beasts and fishes of these islands and the surrounding seas. Galvao appears rather to have listened to the tales of credulous natives than to have investigated matters for himself. We have however nearly the truth con- cerning small fowls in Amboyna which place their eggs more than an ell and a half underground, — actually in a mound of vegetable matter. This is evidently an allusion to a megapode. The boar with horns (by which word tusks are doubtless in- tended) is probably the babirusa of Borneo. Subsequently these so-called horns are called teeth of which, says Galvao, the boars have two by the snout and two others are behind (that is bend behind) the ears for a good span and a half. The oysters called ' Bras ' with shells so large that they are used as baptismal fonts are probably gigantic clams such as are used as holy water basins in the church of St. Sulpice in Paris ; the live stone in the sea from which lime is obtained by burning is doubtless coral ; the plant which follows the sun is a girasole. On a later page when Galvao is narrating the voyage of Hernando de Grijalvarez from New Spain to the Moluccas, he alludes to a bird of the size of a crane which ' doth not fly nor yet hath wings wherewith to fly ' but which runs like a deer and he adds that the Papuans use its feathers to repre- sent hair on their idols. No doubt these flightless birds are cassowaries of some species or other. I can remember seeing a The Zoological Notions of Antonio Galvao 37 New Guinea idol with a few feathers attached to its head but do not recollect where I saw it. In his account of the discoveries and conquests of Cortes, Galvao does not fail to mention humming-birds by the name ' Vicincilim ' and that they feed upon the sweet juice in the calices of flowers. Their feathers were employed in fancy work ('penas prezam muito pera lavrar ouro'). Probably the feathers were used by the Mexicans to cover cloaks. Oddly enough the disappearance of the humming-birds on the occasion of their autumn migration is supposed to be hybernation or even death and their re-appearance at the time of the spring migration is described as an awakening or even a resurrection ; hence, adds Galvao, they are called ' Os resuscitados.' Rattlesnakes are snakes with hawks' bells (cascaveis, French, ' grelots '). The name has endured for the rattlesnake is ' cobra de cascaveis ' in modern Portuguese. The old fable of the snake which pro- duces its young at its mouth is repeated by Galvao. Another version of the story is that the young take refuge in the parent's mouth when danger threatens. But this statement is also called in question. The swine with the navel on the back and the fish which grunt must also be received cum grano salis. In his general description of southern South America, Galvao makes particular mention of the animal which the Indians call the Xaco and which the Spaniards called sheep because of the wool which they bore. Galvao supposes them to be a kind of deer. They are probably llamas for they were used as beasts of burden and could carry a weight equal to a hundredweight. The Spaniards rode upon them also and we are told that when the xaco is tired it turns its head and spits out a peculiarly offensive liquid at its rider. Of great interest is Galvao's allusion to penguins under the date 1540. He compares them to ducks, '. . . ■ 38 The Zoological Notions of Antonio Galvao as does also Pigafetta, but tells us that they have no feathers, and are entirely covered with a thin veil (' sem penas, tern hum veo delgado qas cobre todas '). 1 have mentioned Galvao's account of the parturition of marsupials as an instance of advance upon the knowledge of his times, and if we were to seek a second instance of such advance, I think we would find it in his remarks upon the distribution of black races, which, as he justly observes, are occasionally found very widely separated one from another and these intervening spaces are occupied by people of wholly different complexions. Thus Balboa, we are told, in 15 13, during the journey in the course of which he obtained the first view of the Pacific Ocean, came in contact with black frizzly-haired slaves in a district which is in one place called * Quareca,' in another, * Cau^a.' Bernardo de la Torre saw men having the characteristics of Papuans in the Philippine Islands ; there is in point of fact such a race there. As instances of other isolated black races Galvao mentions the Andaman Islanders and the Nicobar Islanders. It is hardly probable that Galvao distinguished very nicely between frizzly-haired black men and woolly-haired black men ; between Papuan and Oceanic negroid races. The Anda- man Islanders are of negroid type as were the Tasmanians. The black men of Quareca remain a mystery. APPENDICES APPENDIX A. Inscriptions relating to Terra Australis incognita on two Maps and a Terrestrial Sphere of Gerardus Mercator and on a Map of Cornelius de Judaeis. On a Double Cordiform Map of the World by Mercator dated 1538 : — Terras hue esse certum est sed quantas quibus; limitibus finitas incertum. On a Terrestrial Sphere of Mercator ; Louvain, 1541 : — Quinta haec et quidem amplissima pars quantum coniectare licet, nuper orbi nostro accessit, verum paucis adhuc littoribus explorata. Psittacorum Regio sic a Lusitanis anno 1 500 ad milia pasuum bis mille praetervectis sic appellata, quod psitacos alat inaudite magnitudinis, ut qui ternos cubitos aequent longitudine. On the Map of Mercator ' Nova et Aucta Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigantium emendate accomodata.' Duisburg y 1569 : — Nova Guinea que ab Andrea Corsali Florentino videtur dici Terra de piccinacoli. Forte Sabadij insula est Ptolomeo si modo insula est, nam sitne insula an pars continents australis ignotu adhuc est. Hie in latitudine 42 gr. distancia 450 leucarum a capite Bonae Spei et 600 a promontorio S. Augustini inventum est promon- 42 Appendices torium Terrae Australis, ut annotavit Martinus Fernandus Denciso in sua Summa Geographiae. Psittacorum Regio sic a Lusitanis hue libegio vento appulsis cum Callicutum peterent appellata propter earum avium ibidem multitudinem. Porro cum hujus terrae littus ad 2000 miliarium prosequuiti essent necdum tamen finem invenerunt, inde australem continentem attigisse indubitatum est. Vehemens admodum est fluxus maris versus ortum et occasum inter Madagascar et Romeros insulas ita ut difficilima hue illinc sit navigatio, teste M. Paulo Ven : lib. iii, cap. 40, quare non admodum multum haec littora a Madagascar distare necesse est ut contractione alveo orientalis oceanus in occidentalem magno impetu se fundat et refundat. Astipulatur huic Cretici cuiusdam Venetorum ad regem Portugallie legati epistola, quern nudos hie degere viros habet. On the Map intituled ' Hemispheric ab Aequinoctiali Lined ad circulu poli atarctici ' in the Speculum Orbis Terrae of Cornelius de Judaeis {Cornelis de J ode) Antve)piae, 1593 : — Maxima et admiranda insula occidentalis America, nunc quarta pars orbis nominata : ditissima fertilissima ; omniu reru ad vita necessariaru. Veteribus philosophis, cosmographis et potentissimis Monarchis ignota et primu imperante Carolo V. perlustrata. In his peninsulis et isthmo sunt maxime temporu et reru variationes : quonia subiacent incoli 4 zonis, una frigida est, altera torrida, tertia et quarta temperata. Lusitani hanc spei legentes capitis promontoriu hanc terram austra vers' extare viderunt : sed nondu implorauere. Habitantes sub hoc circulo cuius capacitas maior est tota. Europa habent die continuu 6 menses nimiru ab aequinoctio autumnali usq. ad aequinoctiu vernale : et contra quonia incole zona frigida habetes Polu in zenit : perpendiculariter et verticularit. APPENDIX B. Letters relating to the Wreck of the Trval. I. Letter 1072 in Vol. IX. of Original Correspondence State Papers. 1622. From John Brooke to East India Company. Honorable and Right Worshipfull May it please you to understand that at ye Cape of Bona Esperanza I met with one of yr Worships ships, ye Charles ye Commander Capt. Jno Bickle by whom I advised your Worships of all that has passed in my voyages and also refer myself unto his relation I would fain have had one of his Masters maps or charts or anie other, In regards I myself nor anie of my mates had runn this dangerous course nor ever bene from ys Cape to Jacatra, and Capt. Bickle was willing but none of his mates would go back with me in regards neither he nor myself would inlarge their wadges. I departing from the Cape of Good Hope the 19th day of March I ranne into ye latitude of 39 degrees according to Captain Fitzarbert his Jurnall which your Worships gave me orders to follow, and also Captain Bickle gave me Councell to do the like. The 6th daye of Maye I saw land being in ye latitude of 22 degrees North where land had bene found lie seen by ye Flemings and is laid inwards N.E. by N. and S.E. by S. from ye Straits of Sunda. This island is 44 Appendices 1 8 leagues long and we were all verie joyfull at ye sight thereof but finding 8 degrees variation found by judgment and Captain Fitzarberts Jurnall that we were io leagues to the southwards of this island and being in this variation we steered N.E. by E. and fell in with ye east end of Java I took the opinion and counsell of my people, when ye winde came faire but having contrarie winde between N. and N.E. we were held up from 5th daye of Maye until ye 24th of ye same month Ye great island with 3 small islands at ye easter end bearing S.E. 20 leagues of us ye wind veering to ye S.E. and faire weather we steered N.E. thinking to fall in with the wester end of Java and ye 25th daye of Maye at 1 1 of ye clocke in ye nighte, faire weather and smooth water, ye shipp strocke I ran to ye poop and hove ye leade and found but 3 fathoms water 60 men being upon the decks Some of them would not believe that she struck I crying to them to beare up and tack to the westward they did their best but ye rocks being sharp ye ship was full of water for ye most of these rocks lie 2 fathoms under water ; it struck my men in such a maze when I said ye ship strucke and they could see neither breach land rocks change of water nor signe of danger. Ye shippe filling a short while after that I had hove the leade whilst I had brought my sailes a backstaies before she strocke a second strocke ye winde began suddenly to freshe and blow I strucke down my sailes and got out my skiffe and by their sounding about ye shippe they found sharp sunken rocks half a cable length a starn noe ground these rocks are steep. I made all ye waie I could to get out my long boate and by 2 of ye clocke I had gotten her out and hanged her in ye cockles on the side soe seeing ye shippe full of water and ye winde to increase made all ye means 1 could to save my life and as manie of my compa as I could I put yr Worships 800 Rupees and ye gould spangles with my own monie in a case of bottles and sent it by John Norden Will Hicca and John Willobie to put in ye long boate my manuscript my commission and letters my mates and purser did ye like every man to save what they could these men carried these things to ye boat's starn and being in dissention would not suffer ye boate to be launched Appendices 45 into ye water nor suffer ye things to be put into her but what one put in the other threw overboard so that neither money commission not anny account or letter either of your Worships or anie other mens were saved. My people crying out of ye skiffe unto me to come in and save my life ye shippe beginning to open I ran down by a rope over ye people and we were like to have broken ye skiffe in taking me in being at 3 of ye clocke in ye morning ye boate put put off at 4 in ye morning and half an houre after ye forepart of ye shipp fell in pieces. 10 men were saved in ye skiffe and 36 in ye long boate 46 men and boyes of 139 are saved and their names hereunto subscribed doth appeare. I came awaie with my boate for ye Straights my boate steered backe for ye Island which is 7 leagues to ye S.E. warde of ye place where ye shippe was cast awaie ye boate found a little low iland these rocks and iland of which their latitude longitude courses and distances I have given two drafts to your Worships President which his Worship doth intend to send you on ye first opportunitie. I fell in with ye easter end of Java ye 8th daye of June 1622, at Bantam ye 21 ditto, and at Jacatra ye 25th of ye same month. I had one barrel of water 2 cases of bottles 2 runlets of aqua vitae 40 lbs bread and for 4 daies together so much raine and sea that the skiffe was always one third full of watter ; and ye boate had 2 runlets wine 6 barrels of water 2 cases of bottles and 4 lbs of bread. Our distress was great as ye worshipfull ye President and his Counsell having examined myself and all my people that were saved hath trulie bene informed. This iland lieth false in his longitude 200 leagues which I have found by wofull experience as also these sunken rocks as by my draughte will appeare unto your worships. A Dutch ship (ye Armes of Home) which came some way after me fell in with ye lande in 31 degrees at 3 of ye clocke in ye morning and were in ye breache of ye shore in 6 fathoms ye shippe stayed and ye winde blewe in at E.S.E. right upon ye shore ; they came to an 46 Appendices anchor in 1 5 fathoms and wound up in 6 and ridde 3 daies at ye mercie of God which land being upon ye maine I have also put down in your Worships draught. He ran into 42 degrees latitude and this passidge ye Dutch (generall) doth not like foule with weede and riplins which I and this Dutchman have passed and 2 or 3 other Dutch ships which came last and noe ground at 200 fathoms but in stormie weather in ye night in some places ye sea is all in a breoth. I pray God bless your Worships ships that are to come after me by Captain Fitzarbert's Jurnall for he missed this dainger narrowlie. If I were worthy to give your Worships advice not anie shipp should pass 37 degrees, and so to run 8000 leagues in that parallel, from thence to steere right with ye Straightes of Sundaye. Let annie man presume upon that when he finds 10 degrees variation having runne 1300 leagues. Being in ye latitude of 48 or 49 Longitude 74 or 75 ye straits of Sundaye will beare off him N.N.E. ye current setts strong to ye eastward allwaies in that course experience of variation is the greatest help to anie man. This ceasing giveing God praise for his great mercies to me my child and these men that are preserved from these great dangers which we have passed and also in troubling your Worships any further with this ill uncomfortable and unwelcome news I rest Saved in ye skiffe 1. Jno Broock 2. Jno Barnes 3. David Arnold 4. G. Grimes 5. Ed. Broock 6. Tho Coode 7. Jto Prest 8. Lewis Glidon 9. Lanclott Barnell 10. Jno Broock ye younger, his son. Appendices 47 In ye long boate saved 1. Nich Darter 2. J no Norden 3. J no Gunter J no Baylle E. Burdill Davies Andrew Derrie 8. James Leeg 9. Pol H . . . 10. Jeames Waie 4- 5- 6. 7- 2. 3- 4- 5- 6. 7- 8. 9- 20. 21. Pol Stanburie 29. 22. Jno Armstrong 30. 23. W. Tiller 31. 24. Matha Wells 32. 25. Antho Atkinson 33. 26. Ben Brock boy 34. 27. Ed. Howell boy 35. 28. Pol Cunningham Cunningham 36. Jno Peterson Kempe Tho Bright W. Danby Ed. Man Jno Williams David Williamson Fred Clarke Tho Dones W. Galle Ed Thompson Jno Gaze Tho Boyle W. Hickie L. Greet Jno Browne Garret Franson Jno Baptistan Your Worships servant Most humbell at command John Broock. ( Letter endorsed John Brookes, mr. of ye Triall (cast awaie) dated at Jacatra, 25th August, 1622. To the hoble and right wor fu!1 the Governor and Committee of the English East India Companie at Croasbie House London.) 48 Appendices II. Letter 1097 in Vol. IX. Original Correspondence. State Papers, 1623. From John Brooke to East India Company. Right Worshipfull May it please you to understand that by your Lesser Jeames by Mr. John Roberts and by Mr. Willi-Hawkeridge and alsoe by a Dutch ship that came in companie with your Lesser Jeames : one letter in each shippe in which letters I have explained my hard and misserable crass whence your worships Tryall was lost : I and 45 men and boyes were saved in boate and skiffe : which by The Worshipfull President and his Counsells letters : and by Mr. John Roberts and Mr. Willi-Hawkeridge reports by word of mouth will appear to your worshippes : whether there were anie neckligence obstinacie or ever did refuse the councell of my mates : in bearing off any land or altering of any course : But we did compare our jugments with Captain Fittzarbours Jurnall : having no other remedie in wanting experience : there was our rewen : hee missing this dainger being a legge of sunken rockes not 15 leagues as by my draught sent your worships by the Worshipfull the President and his Councell will appear : the latitude and variation compared with Captain Fittzarbour his Jurnall : will give the longitude the greatest help to find the true longitude of any place is the variation having once made experience : and for the daingers and causellties of the seas all seamen are subject unto : your Worships loss is great, shipp gone and men's lives espetially your Commission and letters of advice which is one hath bine no smale greiff unto me more than my owne loss : which could be no greater, life excepted : my desire is hoomward according to my condition with your worships not in regard that I think the tyme longe or to be anie waie unwilling to doe your worships anie service that in my power lyeth : or in Appendices 49 regard of the times in the Reports : But my hard begening at entrance in your Worships service, I am willing to use my best endevors if it be for twelve or eighteen months more than my tyme conditioned with your Worships which being required by the Worshipfull the President and his Councell I am willing to give waie unto : desiring God to give a blessing unto your Worshipful preceding : and to our labour in your service. Alsoe -I doe desire your Worships to supplie my wifes wants with sixtie or eightie pound more : which she will stand in great need off beffore these yeares be expired. I have sent your Worships inclosed the coppie of the Triall mens examination which was saved in ye Longe Boat. This ceasing in troubling your worshipful anie further with this unwellcome and uncomfortable news I rest Your Worships servant Most humble at command, John Brooke. From Battavia ye 8th daye of February, 1623. ( Letter endorsed : John Brooke. Mr. Sh. Triall which was cast away dated in Jaquatra 8 February 1623. To the Hon. and right Worshipful the Governor and Committee of ye East India Comp y - at Crosbey House London.) E 50 Appendices III. Letter {unsigned} to Andrew Elam. State Papers. Original Correspondence. Vol. XI. No. 1070. Andrew Elam, Laus Deo Jacatraya. Aug. 22. 1622. In my last shippe Charles from Cape Bona Esperanza leaving date the 14th March and departure from thence 19th ditto with a faire winde and so continued for the most part till the disastrous and untymly misfortune happened May 25th about 10 of Clock night, faire weather and little winde in latitude 20° 3', longitude 8o° 300 leagues from the Straightes of Sundaye. Ship Tryall by carelessness for want of looking out struck upon the rocks, soone on before any steer different,* ship filling, hould full of watter in an instant, the skiff hoisted out, the master electing his crew and fellows and consorts providing provisions salving his things leaving Mr. Jackson and myself with fayre words promising us faithfully to take us along but like a Judas running into great Cabin lowered himself privately into the skiff only with 9 men and his boy, stood for the Straights of Sundaye that instant without care, and seeing the lamentable end of shipp the time she splitt, or respect of any man's life. The long boate with greate difficulty was gott out, being 128 souls left to Gods mercy whereof 36 saved we keeping till day come ^ mile from ye shipp, then upon a sudden she split in many places, the sun then so high we durst not for feare of endaingering ourselves adventure to them and for that we were so slenderly provided with provisions that impossible without God's great providence we should arrive at our wished port. Also upon eight of day we espied a Hand bearing South East some five leagues at most from us by all likelihood ; land could not be far by the fowle and weede all that day driving * The sense seems to be that there was no time to alter the ship's course before she struck. Appendices 5 1 from the Hand and rocks, to which said Hand we went, stayed thereon seven days for the fitting of our boate and supply of watter, having when we left the ship but one barrel full the rest emptie being none but what the Lord send of raine ; not any inhabitants thereon, we travelled on all the Hand seeing nothing but islands, some small some great breaches and shoals every way as far as we could see Very daingerous on the N.W. side to the S.S.W. of this ile there lyeth a great Hand near nine leagues off the full description of these Hands I would have sent you but many things I want to laye them down truly as I could wish, respect to press of time this from me. I am not one that possess manners (?) art or any skill therein worth the noting, the more I understand by relation of Jurnalls and plans that these Hands were never discovered by any although he would excuse it to say he followed directly Captin Humphrey Fitzerberts journal. Had our Jurnall been compared with his should have found Brooke 400 leagues in the latitude of 38° to 34 more to the Eastwards than he or ever ship ever was againe we always feared the ship to be beyond his reckoning [well nigh 150 leagues]* the winde that present we struck S.S.E. he directing his course North East and north east by east, when the Straightes of Sundaye bene north westerly of us. Had it pleased God our Course but 2 points or one point more northerly we had gone clear of all. June yth. Steered for the place we left our ship, sayling betwixt the breach had 20 fathoms, nothing we could see of ship or anything aptaining thereto. 26th ditto. Brooke with the skiff arrived here. 28M ditto. Our long boate for which the Lord make us thankfull. It did seem strainge to me that Brooke had so cunningly excused the neglect of the Company's letters, spangles and monevs, etc. * The words within brackets are scratched out in the MS. London: Printed by Stkangeways & Sons, Tower Street. 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