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31 Johan Struys
Translated from xerographs of his ‘Drie aanmerkelijke ... Reysen ...’, Amsterdam 1676, by courtesy of the University Library, Leiden. It contains three voyages: 1, 1648-51 to Ispahan; 2, 1655-57 to Venice; 3, 1668-73 via Moscow and Astrakhan to the Caspian, to work there as a sail-maker. His ship ran aground there and he was taken prisoner and enslaved by the Tartars, and sold by them to a jewel-merchant of Derbent (married to a Polish wife, the ‘Altijn’ whom he mentions below). He was again sold to the Polish Ambassador, but in 1672 bought his freedom with a loan from the Batavia authorities, and went by caravan over the Taurus Mountains to Gamron (Bandar Abbas), sailing thence to Batavia. There in September 1672 he enlisted with the V.O.C. as sailmaker in Hollandische Thuijn, ordered to cruise off Bantam watching for French and English ships.
Meanwhile my longing for my dear wife and children became so continual and so great, that I had no more enjoyment in life. This caused me to take the liberty of writing to the Hon. Heer Speelman, Ordinary Councillor* of the Indies, and the Hon. Heer Pieter van Hoorn, and beg for my release, which also the said Hon. gentlemen were good enough to
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grant, and therewith sent orders that I should return to Batavia with the flute* Nieuwpoort, and there go aboard the flute [Frans] Europa with my chest and belongings: wherewith I set sail on February 4, 1673 for the Fatherland, in company with 5 other ships: the ship ter Veer as Admiral*; Alfen, Vice-Admiral; Pijnaker, Rear-Admiral; also Starmeer and Papenburgh. We set our course West and by South for the Sunda Strait.
On the 5 we came to anchor before Bantam, finding there 7 smart ships, to watch as previously for English and the French.
On the 6 we found ourselves outside the Sunda Strait, and set our course South-South-West until we reached the latitude of 14 degrees; then we changed our course and steered West-South-West to the latitude of 28 degrees, when we steered South to 32 degrees, this being the latitude of the Cabo de Bona Esperance [sic]. There we came to the roads on April 15 [dr], and found lying there some ships sent from the Fatherland to the East Indies. Here we heard with sorrow the doleful tidings of the French invasion, and that they had already made themselves masters of three of the Seven Provinces, that the Pensionary De Witt and his brother the Ruwaart had so terribly died, and that His Highness the Prince of Orange was raised to be the Stadthouder.
We tarried till May 1 [dr] at the Cape, when we were ordered by the Governor Ysbrant Godsken to leave with our ship [Frans] Europa for St Helena, this having been taken from the English with about 300 men on January 13 last. The other ships were to follow us 7 or 8 days later, and then set sail in company for the Fatherland.
Thus we set sail at the said time with a brisk gale, taking in our ship the Captain Bredenbach, to be set at St Helena as Governor. We set our course North-West, and on Whitsunday, May 31, came before St Helena. But hardly had we rounded the cape than we soon saw that the chart was upside-down, 7 large English warships lying there before the bay together with a fireship and three merchantmen. The English on finding us within range at once welcomed us with their lower and upper tiers [of cannon], and gave us such a Whitsun bouquet that we were presently quit of ship and cargo, not without having some dead and wounded. We had aboard not more than 60 men, and could use no more than 5 or 6 guns. Being then in such a great strait, and being able to do little with our guns, we boldly resolved to grapple the English frigate* Assistentie of 50 guns which followed us with the fireship, and board her. Thereupon our Skipper gave orders for all the hatchways to be nailed up, so that no one might hide himself but thus all together leap aboard the Englishman; but to our great misfortune we could not lay hands on half so many weapons as we had need of. Thus we were compelled to surrender our ship with crew and cargo, since the Englishman with balls, bar-shot and grapeshot from his 12- and 18-pounders so intimidated us that we could endure it no longer, without our being able to do him any notable damage with our weak crew and few guns.
The English were no sooner aboard than they fell to plundering, and I was repeatedly searched and re-searched so that I no longer knew how to hide my little wallet with my jewels, which caused me no little alarm. My good-hearted and exceptionally kind Patroness Altijn had given me eleven rough diamonds, of which I had sold one of the
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[25] Flute, excellently showing the rounded stern and the standard rig (see ‘Spiegelschip’ in Index), with the low mizzen-mast and small lateen sail. From the Ned. Hist. Scheepvaart Museum, Amsterdam.
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smallest at Batavia for about a thousand guilders. Now I had repeatedly shifted my treasure from one hiding-place to another, but the greedy English again and again made new searches, so that, seeing no hope of saving the whole, I thought to make sure of a part of it. For this purpose I called one of the Englishmen aside and revealed my treasure to him, and my intent, namely that I would give my diamonds into his hands on trust, if he would swear that if we came safely to England he would there return me again five of them, and keep the other five for himself, and that he would reveal this to no one but faithfully fulfil it, to which he swore with strong oaths. The English sailors, wishing to have much gain from their conquest, broke open our chests, and threw the cottons and silks in heaps so that one could scarcely get through. My Treasurer for a long time kept his peace, but at a certain time coming to be drunken he revealed our secret to one of his messmates, and it did not long delay in reaching the ears of the Skipper who did not tarry in making himself master of the diamonds, well paying the incautious Treasurer with blows; and thus the last of my fruits was plucked. The only things that they left me were my papers and the journal of my journey and doings on Mount Ararath: indeed a poor payment for my toilsome travels, so that in this case I had no more cause to thank the Christians than the Heathen, rapacity setting aside all pity as much among the ones as the others.
And thus my unfortunate self, barely delivered from my slavery and misery, was thus deprived of my last means of support, so that I should have entirely lost my wits and fallen into despair, had I not thought of God and of His eternal destiny; and although as I write this I believe that no one will be found so lacking in pity that he shall not lament my misery and be somewhat affected by it, yet it is impossible for me to express what were my own feelings.
The English had taken the island eight days previously, being forced to do this for lack of water, since they were come there only for this, not then knowing that the island was no longer English, having been sent there to look out for their ships awaited from the Indies and convoy them home. Being now come into the bay to take in water, they were greatly taken aback to be received with cannon-fire, and withdrew from the roads; but their great need forced them to seek some escape, unless they wished all to die of thirst, since one ship had two hogsheads of water only, another only one, and some not even that amount. The English Admiral Monday therefore gave order to attempt to land on the South side in the gorge of a hill, as also was done, although it was so narrow there that no more than four men could go abreast, so that, if the Dutch had set only 50 or 60 men at this post they could have killed them all with stones; but they could not spare so many men from their fort, and thus the English came ashore to the rear of the fortifications. The Dutch Governor finding himself thus surprised, and not having within the fort a garrison sufficient to resist so large a force, surrendered the Place on honourable terms. Thus the English related the story to us.
On June 4 the English got their claws on two more ships of the five which followed us. These, together with a hooker* from Ceylon, came sailing to St Helena without any
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suspicion. The English let the Prince's flag* fly from their ships, and set up a red a red flag on a height, this being our signal to sail in without fear. Seeing this, I got the idea of doing my Fatherland a good turn, and therefore went little by little to the shore, the ships then being barely half a mile* from land. I took off my shirt and made it there into a little flag, hoping to cause them at least some misgiving; but it seemed that they took no heed of it, since otherwise there would still have been time enough to avoid the dance. It was not long before I found myself seized by two English sentries who had spied me. These gave me, under a hail of insults such as Dog, Rascal and so forth, so many blows and kicks that I thought my last hour was come. After this they brought me before the Governor, who asked me, What was my intention with that signal? So I replied openly: That I had done this for love of my Fatherland, to warn the ships. He began to smile, saying Well, well, it is not to be wondered at, and with that he let me go free.
At these signals our ships came sailing in together; but having barely rounded the cape they at once saw how things stood, all the English ships making for them at the same time: now each sought for a good escape, since the ships were jammed full of cargoes and the guns stowed, so that there was nothing else to be done; but the English were so close on their heels that two ships fell into their hands, to wit our Admiral* Ter Veer and the Vice-Admiral Alfen, the others escaping from the dance. The ship Ter Veer defended herself as bravely as her condition allowed, and also would not have been taken, had her maintop-yard not been shot down: she fought with the ship West-Vriesland, being a Dutch ship captured in the previous English war [1665] and now carrying 54 heavy guns. Our Admiral would very fain have grappled her, but the Englishman avoided this and met him bow to bow, so that being unable to do this he was at last compelled to surrender, the commander himself being badly wounded in the leg.
Ascension June 19-23: turtle-hunt, 200 to 300 lb. in weight. Ireland sighted August 22: Baltimore August 23; released there, on foot to Kinsale, there for 10 days. Cork September 9, thence by ship to the ‘False Channel’ and to Bristol. On foot to London, arriving September 15, ‘and stayed there three days to rest, and with great astonishment viewed the magnificently rebuilt city, arisen from the ashes of the well-known Fire of London in the year 1666, now even more finely built than before. From London I travelled through many villages and lovely country to Harwits, from where I embarked for my long-desired Fatherland, and after so many miseries and strange adventures, on October 7, 1672 I saw with joy my house, my wife and my children whom I had a thousand times despaired of ever seeing again.’
With this may be read:
Frederick Andersen Bolling, 1673. (And see item 24.) In garrison at the Batavia Castle until 1671, when engaged to teach Hebrew to a partly-qualified Preacher, and offered a post at the school on condition that he would pass from Lutheranism to Calvinism, which he refused. Appointed book-keeper for a private voyage to China, sailing June 17, 1672,
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and at Macao June 21 to November 3, when back to Batavia. Helped by his Preacher-pupil to be allowed home after 2½ years instead of the 5 of his engagement. Sailed February 4, 1673, in Alphen, with Wapen van de Veer (Admiral*), [Frans] Europa, Pinacher, Papenborg, Stormer (confirmed by Struys above and by Valentyn I: the Visscher translation is defective here).
Thus we arrived safely on April 20 [dr] to the Cabo bonae Spei without any storm, and had one death near the island of Mauritius, who after prayer was thrown overboard.
We lay and refreshed ourselves at the Cabo bonae Spei until May 11, when we set sail [dr], and had orders to go to St Helena, which at that time the Dutch had taken from the English [dr 13/12/72, 5/3/73], and we carried with us a Captain who was to be Governor at St Helena, who had previously captured it [Breitenbach; but he had sailed ahead in Frans Europa, dr 1/5].
St Helena is only a small island, on which the English had built a fort, and there all the [? their] ships that went to the East-Indies refreshed themselves. The said island is full of pigs, sheep, oxen, fowls, geese and ducks, and good water is found there.
On June 5 we came to St Helena, and since we had with us a hooker* [‘Huggert’, not traced] (it is a small ship thus named, which was an excellent sailor, which the Dutch use as a scout, which must always go ahead of the fleet and advise us how matters stood in the islands); she went far ahead of us, and when she came into the bay in front of the roads she saw lying there 14 English ships: she fired a gun, turned away, and continued her course to the Fatherland (the English had taken St Helena from the Dutch, but left a Dutch flag hanging over the fort to deceive us).
We turned our ship about, but had the misfortune that our sail tore in pieces, but with great toil we got up another sail; but meanwhile we were surrounded by the English and our ships were altogether scattered: at last the English Admiral came with his ship, named Assistentia, and the name of the Admiral was Mundei, the ship had about 60 guns. He neared us, and also a fireship called the Castel de Freyheit. They called to us to strike our flag to the King of England; our Chief Mate, who was now acting as First Lieutenant, replied that they must strike their flag to the Prince of Orange.
The Dutch are economical, they do not incur the cost of having [military] officers, therefore they take no one into their ship-service unless he also understands military matters; therefore if they come into a fight the Skipper must be the Captain, the Chief Mate the First Lieutenant, the [Second] Mate steers the ship, and the Book-keeper is Second Lieutenant, the Third Mate is Commander, etc.
Since evening was approaching we did not begin the engagement, and hoped that GOD would send us a storm that night so that we could escape out of the enemy's hands, but our prayer was not heard: when at night we turned our ship about they were at once near us, they could sail as fast with two sails as we with all ours. We nevertheless prepared for the night and would fight them: we could get up not more than 12 guns, the others lying in the hold among the cloves. Next morning the weather was lovely, and our only
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hope was to fire at the fireship and board the English Admiral, and when the fireship was quite close to us we fired 6 guns together at her, but she was very fast, and ran so far from us that she could be clear of our guns.
Towards midday the English Admiral neared us, and again asked if we would surrender to the King of England: our Chief Mate or Lieutenant asked him to strike his flag to the Prince of Orange. At that same moment he fired at our mainmast but missed, and we gave him a broadside which damaged him near the waterline, so that he must leave us and heel [‘kraencke’] his ship, which gave us great courage.
So we sailed away from them until we could no longer see them, and were glad; but within four hours the fireship was again not far from us and followed us closely, and at night she set a light on her mainmast so that the Admiral could see where we were.
Next morning at ten o'clock the Admiral came back to us and gave us a broadside: he did not shoot to damage the ship but our crew, firing above the hull with bar-shot [‘Knipler’] and chain-shot [‘Laencke-kugler’], by which two of our men were killed and one was wounded in the arm. We were not idle but fired lustily back at him, and turned our ship towards him with the intent of boarding; but he avoided us, and when night fell did not again come near us.
That night we prayed the LORD for a storm, and each of us promised two months' pay to the poor, if GOD would give us a storm so that we could escape the enemy. Also we then opened our letters to see what orders we had, where we found that the four small chests that were in the sailroom should be thrown overboard if the enemy proved too strong for us.
Since our Chief Mate had been captured by the English in the last war when coming from the East-Indies, he thought it desirable that we should not surrender without [the promise of] keeping what we had on our persons, and wished therefore that we should open one chest, as was done, and thereupon were dealt out among us the jewels that were found in it, with the orders that the Dutch Company should receive the half if we came safely to Holland.
On June 7 early in the morning (after the three other chests had been thrown overboard) the English Admiral again neared us and asked as before if we would surrender. Our Lieutenant replied Yes, on condition that each should keep what he had on him, and not be made a prisoner in England: the ship, the cargo and our chests would be for them. This the Admiral swore to with uplifted fingers, so we lowered our sail and took in the red flag*. They came aboard and greeted us as brothers, and I with 18 others was set aboard the fireship which was called Castel de Frjhed....
Ascension, finding there Wapen van ter Veer and Frans Europa as English prizes. The hidden jewels betrayed by an Italian, one of captured crew: all stripped and searched, but Bolling successfully hid three jewels in his mouth - the Italian later killed in Ireland by others of the crew. August 23 Kinsale, where he escaped ashore with the Mate and sold one diamond there for 30 Rxd. Seven days on foot to Dublin, where his standing as
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student got him hospitality from ‘the Academy’ and a pass for London. Ship to Chester, and on foot to London and Harwich. October 26 Amsterdam: asked for his pay but told ‘Ship lost, all lost’. November 7 safely back home. Then (Visscher) teacher of languages at Copenhagen, publishing a small English textbook and dictionary. |
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