19 David Tappen
(See also item 44.) Translated from his ‘Fünftzehen-Jährige ... Reisebreschreibung ...’, published at Hanover and Wolfenbüttel in 1704. This is one of the few accounts written in a light-hearted (and sometimes rather bawdy) vein, and appears to be almost entirely from his own observations: at any rate when he is giving second-hand information (I suspect from Schreyer of item 21) he says so, and there are none of the plagiarisms, often word for word, which disfigure the pages of so many early writers. It contains some twenty pages of very valuable information on the Dutch East-Indiamen, not translated here.
Tappen left his home at Halle in 1667. Taken on through a crimp* at Amsterdam as a soldier: he gives details of what was issued him against a credit-note of 150 florins, to be deducted from his pay. Sailed in Elburg from Texel on October 2, 1667, but driven back by storms. Channel. Driven off course to the West Indies. Equator. Landed at Fayal, trouble with the authorities. Rations cut; back to Holland. Sailed again on June 14, 1668 (Hague codex 4389 folio 58 has the sailings as 2/10/67 but 20/6/68). Channel route again.
On October 6 we saw many birds called Piggewyns, a sign that we were not far from the Cabo de Boa Esperance. A few days later we saw also many sea-dogs and small whales, called by the Dutch Nord-Capers: these are a sort of fish 13 to 14 ells long, and blow out the water as do whales, and when they float on the surface they look like old dead trees. On October 13 our Mate saw the Table Mountain, and as we came somewhat nearer we saw also the Lion Hill; but because it was evening and already dark we dared not close the land because of the sandbanks and rocks, and so remained at sea all that night. But in the early morning we steered for land, and came to anchor [dr 29/11] before the Fortress. The shallop* was launched and took our Master and Accountant ashore, where they delivered the letters sent with us from Holland. Next day, October 15, our 22 sick were taken ashore and cared for in the Hospital*. On the same day [dr 3/12] my comrade Andreas Gottfried Fleischer went ashore in our longboat, where he met a soldier, by name Thomas N. of Oldenburg [‘N’ = ‘Name unknown to me’: it was Ert], with whom he had formerly been at enmity. They then began to exchange words, and challenged each other to the sword, and so scuffled below the Table Mountain. When the inhabitants saw this they ran between them, and with clubs broke Fleischer's sword; and so went off, thinking that all would now be well. But this Thomas had thrust his sword through Fleischer, who two hours later was sewn up in a calico sheet and buried. The other took to the bush, but was captured by the savages after a few days and brought to the Dutch, and executed [dr 7/12]. After the execution the Hottentots (as the savages are called) brought in a hunter* who had wounded a lion but not mortally,
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