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home, wrapped in waxed cloth to keep out the rain until a vessel homeward-bound could find them and take them back to Europe. And they proved the men had at least reached the Tavern of the Ocean safely—a matter of importance at a time when it was all too common for ships to vanish without trace on the passage out or home. Often the evidence of a post-office stone was all there was to show whether a vessel had been lost in the Indian Ocean or the Atlantic. Cf. R. Raven-Hart, Before Van Riebeeck: Callers at South Africa from 1488–1652 (Cape Town: C. Struik, 1967), pp. 116, 207. On the situation at the Cape in 1629, the Hottentots and the wildlife, see ibid., pp. 14–21, 23, 38, 95, 120, 122–4, 175; Bruijn and Gaastra, Ships, Sailors and Spices, p. 192; Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600–1800, pp. 242–6. For the fleet’s dates of arrival and departure, see Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, II, 60. For Pelsaert’s landing and the skipper’s drunkenness, see Confession of Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 161] and Pelsaert’s “Declaration in short [of] the origin, reason, and towards what intention, Jeronimus Cornelissen, undermerchant, has resolved to murder all the people, with his several plans, and in what manner the matter has happened from the beginning to the end,” JFP nd [DB 162–3]. (In the former, the Assendelft is mentioned as one of the ships that Jacobsz visited, but in the latter the vessel in question becomes the Sardam. I prefer the original account.) For the average duration of visits to the Cape in the 1620s, see Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, I, 69. The other vessel in the Batavia convoy, the Hoorn chapter’s jacht, Kleine David, was bound for Pulicat in India and does not appear to have called at Table Bay. Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, II, 60–1.

Jacobsz’s dressing-down According to Pelsaert’s journals, the skipper “excused himself that on the one hand he had been drunk, and on the other hand that he did not know that one would take a thing like that so seriously.” “Declaration in Short,” JFP nd [DB 248].

“ ‘By God . . .’ . . . It was a while before apothecary spoke . . . ‘And how would you manage that?’ ” Ibid. and confession of Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 162].

Chapter 4: Terra Australis Incognita

The only surviving material concerning the beginnings of the Batavia mutiny can be found in Pelsaert’s journals. Much of the information was extracted under torture and—given the potential impact that the mutiny was likely to have on the commandeur’s career—it is unfortunate that there is a total lack of corroboration. The accuracy of the testimonies recorded thus remains open to question; nevertheless, the account that emerges from the journals is internally consistent and—in places—so outrageous that it seems unlikely to be outright invention.

The beginnings of the Batavia mutiny “Declaration in short [of] the origin, reason, and towards what intention, Jeronimus Cornelissen, undermerchant, has resolved to murder all the people . . . ,” JFP nd [DB 248–51]; interrogation of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 178].

“In his journal . . .” “Declaration in Short” JFP nd [DB 249–51].

Ariaen Jacobsz’s guilt It has been suggested, by Philippe Godard, in The First and Last Voyage of the Batavia (Perth: Abrolhos Publishing, nd, c. 1993), pp. 81–5, that Jacobsz was innocent of the crime of mutiny and that events on the Batavia were solely the work of Jeronimus Cornelisz and his associates. It is true that the Dutch authorities were later unable, even with the application of torture, to conclusively establish the skipper’s involvement in the plot, and it is undoubtedly hard to explain why a full-fledged mutiny did not break out on board soon after the Batavia left the Cape, when the ship was still within easy reach of havens such as Madagascar and Mauritius. Some have also found it incredible that the skipper should allow Pelsaert to survive the open boat voyage he and Jacobsz undertook after the wrecking of the ship. See chapters 6 and 9 for a further discussion of these points.