In The Mean Time, The Boat Being Now Ready, De Weert Went Ashore In Her
On The 1st January, 1600, To Get Her Properly Caulked.
In the afternoon,
having doubled the southerly point, two boats were seen, which belonged
to Van Noort, who had put back to the Bay of Knights in search of the
Faith.
Next day, Van Noort returned back, promising to make search for
the Fidelity. De Weert also sent his boat, with his ensign and one of
his pilots, on the same search, and gave them a letter for Van Noort,
requesting a supply of biscuit sufficient for two months. The boat came
back on the 5th with the general's answer, saying, That he was not sure
of having enough of biscuit for his own men, neither knew he how long he
might be at sea, and therefore could not spare any. This answer
afflicted de Weert; and having now no hopes of being again rejoined by
de Cordes, he resolved to proceed for Penguin Island, to lay in a large
store of these birds, and then to follow the fleet of Van Noort, if the
wind proved fair. Before sailing, he wrote a letter for de Cordes, which
he left buried at the foot of a tree, and nailed a board to the tree, on
which was painted, Look at the bottom of this tree.
On the 11th January, 1600, de Weert made sail for Penguin Islands, and
next day came to anchor under the smaller of these islands, where he
immediately landed with thirty-eight men in tolerable health, leaving
the pilots and other seamen on board. Leaving three men to keep the
boat, the rest fell to killing birds, of which there were a prodigious
quantity in the island. In the mean time the wind grew nigh and the sea
very stormy, by which the boat was thrown so high upon the rocks, and so
filled with water, that the boat-keepers were unable to get her off, or
to heave out the water, and so much tossed by the surges that they
expected every minute to have her stove to pieces. In this extremity the
seamen were almost in despair. Without the boat it was impossible for
them to return on board. They had no carpenters, no tools, and no wood,
with which to repair their boat, as there was no wood whatever on the
island. They were all wet, as they had waded into the water as high as
their shoulders to draw the boat from the rocks, and they were starving
with cold. Fortunately, at low water, the boat being aground, they
recovered an axe and some tools, with a few nails, which revived their
hopes of being able to get back to the ship. But as it was impossible to
get the boat drawn ashore before night for repairs, they were obliged to
pass the night on shore in the open air, where they made a fire of some
broken planks from the boat, and eat some birds half-roasted, without
bread, and with so little water that they could not quench their thirst.
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