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is based almost entirely on the surviving primary source material: Pelsaert’s journal, the letters of various survivors, and the Harderwijck MS. The original material has, however, been supplemented with archaeological evidence. Almost all the important works on this subject have been produced under the auspices of the Western Australian Maritime Museum and the National Centre of Excellence for Marine Archaeology in Fremantle, but the unpublished BSc. Hons dissertation of Bernandine Hunneybun, Skullduggery on Beacon Island (University of Western Australia, 1995) and Sofia Boranga’s work on the camps of the Zeewijk survivors in the southern Abrolhos, The Identification of Social Organisation on Gun Island (Post Graduate Diploma in Archaeology dissertation, University of Western Australia, 1998) also made interesting reading. Copies of both papers can be found in the library of the Western Australian Maritime Museum.

Weather conditions in the Abrolhos Jeremy Green, The Loss of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie Retourschip Batavia, Western Australia 1629: An Excavation Report and Catalogue of Artefacts (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1989), p. 3, summarizes the islands’ weather as follows: in the summer the predominant wind is southerly, blowing at Force 5–6 40 percent of the time. There can be cyclones between January and March, and in winter the winds are variable, with occasional gales of up to Force 8–12. In spring the weather improves and the winds drop to become mild and variable. The climate is temperate and, except when it is raining, there is relatively little danger of exposure. See also Hugh Edwards, The Wreck on the Half-Moon Reef (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970), pp. 94–5; Boranga, The Identification of Social Organization on Gun Island, p. 5; Hunneybun, Skullduggery on Beacon Island, pp. 1–5; Jeremy Green, Myra Stanbury, and Femme Gaastra (eds.), The ANCODS Colloquium: Papers Presented at the Australia-Netherlands Colloquium on Maritime Archaeology and Maritime History (Fremantle: Australian National Centre of Excellence for Maritime Archaeology, 1999), pp. 89–91.

“. . . no real undergrowth” Archaeologists are of the opinion that there would have been considerably less brush on the island in 1629 than there is now, the construction of fishermen’s homes in the period from 1946 having created a set of windbreaks that allow more plants to grow.

The survivors as a group JFP 4 June 1629 [DB 124]. The breakdown of numbers is not actually given anywhere; mine is based on a thorough examination of all the references in Pelsaert’s journals. Jeronimus Cornelisz implicitly commented on the early banding together of survivors into groups, writing that the oaths of loyalty his men swore to him “cast away all previous promises . . . including the secret comradeships, tent-ships and others.” Mutineers’ oath of 20 Aug 1629, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 148].

Proportion of foreigners This is the earliest proportion cited by Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, I, p. 155. It dates to 1637. No specific figures exist for the Batavia or the period before 1637, though from mentions in Pelsaert’s journal it is possible to identify at least eight Frenchmen, an Englishman, a Dane, a Swiss, and seven Germans among the crew. The total number of foreigners would certainly have been higher than that, but it is disguised by the commandeur’s habit of putting all names into their Dutch form.

Frans Jansz Jansz’s role as leader of the first survivors’ council is conjecture on my part; the journals are quite silent on the subject. It seems likely he took leadership of the camp, both because his seniority would have made it natural and also because there are two minuscule hints in the journals that the surgeon’s unpleasant fate (see chapter 7) was occasioned by an unresolved conflict with Jeronimus’s principal lieutenant, Zevanck, whose nature is undisclosed, but which can only have been based on some claim, on Jansz’s part, to a degree of authority over the survivors. Since the surgeon was never a member of Cornelisz’s council,