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Abstract
This article introduces a document from the Amsterdam City Archive which sheds new light on the fate of the Vergulde Draak, or Gilt Dragon, a United Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship wrecked off Australia’s west coast in 1656. The document identifies one of the survivors of the wreck who made it on to the shores of the Southland, Hendrick Driessen of Ratingen, and supplies information concerning his background, vocation, and activities both before and after the incident. It reveals previously unknown details of the Vergulde Draak’s voyage and its aftermath, and highlights the value of searching non-VOC archives for documentary sources concerning Australia’s early modern history.
Notes
1 See for example Heeres, The Part Borne by the Dutch; Robert, The Dutch Explorations. Schilder, Australia Unveiled presents a primarily cartographical survey, which also draws on material preserved in Vienna. See also Major, Early Voyages, and Pinkerton, Early Australian Voyages, which draw on material in and outside of VOC archives.
2 Leupe, De reizen der Nederlanders; Stapel, De Oostindische Compagnie; Sigmond and Zuiderbaan, Dutch Discoveries of Australia; Mundle, Dampier.
3 Green, The Loss of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie Jacht; Henderson, Marooned; Green, Treasures From the ‘Vergulde Draeck’; Sheppard, Chasing the Dragon’s Tale.
4 See foremost Gerritsen, And their Ghosts may be Heard; Gerritsen, ‘A Dutch influence on Nhanda?’; Gerritsen, ‘They Will Offer All Friendship’.
5 Broomhall, ‘Emotional Encounters’; Broomhall, ‘Quite Indifferent to These Things’; Broomhall, ‘Dishes, Coins and Pipes’; Broomhall, ‘Shipwrecks, Sorrow, Shame, and the Great Southland’; Broomhall, ‘Dirk Hartog’s Sea Chest’.
6 Lydon, ‘Visions of Disaster’; Penman, ‘The Wicked and the Fair’ and ‘The Batavia Legacy’.
7 Benison, ‘Reduced to a Map’.
8 I have adopted this expression from Worden, ‘Cape Slaves in the Pape Empire of the VOC’.
9 Amsterdam Stadsarchief (hereafter Amsterdam SA): Inv. Classis Amsterdam 379, 186 (Ingekomen stukken betreffende kerkelijke zaken in Oost-Indië, 1 Apr. 1655–13 Aug. 1682), 59–98. Throughout this article I use the spelling employed in the standard work by Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, although numerous variations can be found in contemporary records and secondary historical works, many of which prefer the translated name Gilt Dragon.
10 Amsterdam SA: Inv. Classis Amsterdam 379, 186 (Ingekomen stukken betreffende kerkelijke zaken in Oost-Indië, 1 Apr. 1655–13 Aug. 1682), 59–98. The note on p. 96 indicates that the letter was ‘gegeven in onse kerckelijcke vergaderinge binnen Batavia, den 15en Januarij 1657’.
11 Amsterdam SA: Inv. Classis Amsterdam 379, 186, p. 80, ‘Alle de predicanten & Siecken troosters van uwe E.E. tot ons overgesonden & in uwer E.E. den respective missiven genoemd, syn behouden tot ons overgekomen alleen uytgenomen den kranckbesoeker Hendrick Driessen van Ratingen, die schip-breuck met den draeck op ’t Zuyt-land hebbende geleden aldaer met 60 a 70 sielen die ’t leven daer afbract is gebleven, in een jammerlijcken staet, sonder dat men tot noch toe eenich nader bescheid heeft vernomen, maer twee scheepjens derwaert gesonden om haer op te soecken vruchteloos zijn wedergekeerd, alleen dat men door negen maets die in een opgeboid schuijtjen, miraculeuselijck van daer hier zijnd aengeland, dit droevig ongeval & die sobere toe heeft verstaen.’
12 See Tylor, ‘The Batavia Mutineers’; Penman, ‘The Batavia Legacy’.
13 Stow, ‘The Southland of Antichrist’.
14 Amsterdam SA: Inv. Classis Amsterdam 379, 186, p. 80. See the text at note 11, above.
15 See for example Amsterdam SA: 379 Inv. Classis, 2.1, 157 (uitgezonden predikanten 1636–1663), 387–8, ‘Versonden predicanten en sieckentroosters besouden overgecomen, uytgenomen Hendrick Dresen van Ratingen, die met eenighe zielen in een jammerlijce staet op Zuydtlant sy gebleven.’; Utrechts Archief: 1401 Oud Synodaal Archief, Nr. 2653 s.d., a document transcribed and printed in Knuttel (ed.), Acta der Particuliere Synoden van Zuid-Holland, 165: Extract uyt een brief van Batavia, geschreven den 15en Januarii 1657, behandicht den 5en Augusti des Jaers 1658 ‘. . . Verhaelen, dat al de predikanten ende sieckentroosters aen haer overgesonden, behouden aldaer gekomen sijn, uytgenomen de kranckbesoecker Hendrick Driessen van Ratingen, die schipbreuck met de Draeck op het Suytlant geleden hebbende, aldaer met 60 a 70 zielen, die het leben daer afgebracht hebben, is gebleven in een jammerlijcken staet, sonder dat se tot noch toe eenich nader bescheyt hebben bekomen, ende twee scheepjes derwaerts gesonden om te vernemen, sijn vruchtloos wedergekeert, alleen dat se door 9 maets, die met een opgeboeyt schuytje miraculeuselijck aldaer gekomen waren, dit droevich ongeval hadden verstaen.’
16 Zuiderbaan, ‘The Historical Background’; Duivenvoorde, Dutch East India Company (VOC) Shipbuilding, 163.
17 Zuiderbaan, ‘The Historical Background’, 46.
18 Ibid., 48–9, which reproduces notes from the meeting of the Council of the Indies of the same day. These notes form the basis of the account of the wreck sent by the Council to Jan van Riebeck in Cape Town (4 Dec. 1656), printed in Leibrandt, Precis, 319.
19 Leibrandt, Precis, 319.
20 The number of survivors derives from a letter by the survivors to Matsuycker and the Council of the Indies (7 May 1656) in Leibrandt, Precis, 295. On this letter see note 22, below. It is repeated in the letter of the Council to Riebeck (p. 319). See further Zuiderbaan, ‘The Historical Background’, 48. The various primary sources disagree over crew numbers.
21 Leibrandt, Precis, 295.
22 Leibrandt, Precis, 294-97 (Survivors to Matsuycker and his Council, 7 May 1656) and 316–17 (Survivors to Matsuycker and his Council, 5 May 1656). Manuscript copies are preserved in Cape Town, Western Cape Archives, VOC C (Inkomende Briewe) 277, s.d. These copies were enclosed in a letter from the Council of the Indies to Jan van Riebeck in Cape Town of 4 Dec. 1656, which contained a notice of the wreck and attempts to rescue the survivors, and is in Leibrandt, Precis, 317–23. On 19 Oct. 2015 Steve Caffery published images of both letters written by survivors on the Facebook page of the Gilt Dragon Research Society. The letter of 7 May has also been published in facsimile and translation in Sheppard, Chasing the Dragon’s Tale, 207–8, 210–11.
23 Schwartz, Stammbuch und Chronik, 17.
24 Kessel, Geschichte der Stadt Ratingen.
25 See Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, vol. 1, 154; Gelder, Het Oost-Indisch avontuur, 54.
26 Driessen is not mentioned in Troostenburg de Bruin, Biographische woordenboek. This work includes ‘proponenten, de hulppredikers, [en] de zendelingleeraren die den dienst van predicant hebben waargenomen’ (p. vii), but is highly selective and typically omits mention of krankbezoekers. Driessen is also omitted in Troostenburg de Bruin, Krankbezoekers in Nederlandsch Oost-Indië. I have examined Amsterdam SA: 379, 201 (Ingekomen stukken betreffende kerkelijke zaken op Ceylon), but could find no mention indicating that Driessen occupied a formal role in the church on the island.
27 Amsterdam SA: 379 Inv. Classis Amsterdam, Nr. 163, p. 7 specifies the procedure. See also Grothe (ed.), Archief voor de geschiedenis der Oude Hollandsche zending, 343.
28 Amsterdam SA: 379 Inv. Classis Amsterdam, Nr. 165, p. 4 (Afschriften uit de acta van de Classis, 1655–1706), ‘Hendrik Driessen komende voor krankbesoeker uijt Oostindien van Ratingen l[e]vert beneffens kerkelijcke brieven ook syn kerkelijcke getuygenisse van Batavia en Ceylon versoekkende wederom in de selve qualiteijt daer henden gesonden te worden, welk versoek Do. deput. ad causas wordt gerecommandiret.’
29 See further the standard work by Niet, Ziekentroosters op de pastorale markt; Dictionary of South African English, s.v. ‘sieketrooster, n.’ accessed 24 Nov. 2020, https://dsae.co.za/entry/ sieketrooster/e06458; Koolen, VOC en Onderwijs, 39-41.
30 Amsterdam SA: 379 Inv. Classis Amsterdam, Nr. 163, p. 7, ‘Copye van een Beroep ende Instructie-Brief voor de Siecken-Troosteren gaende naer Oost- of West Indien etc’ dated 7 Jul. 1637. A transcription is in Grothe (ed.), Archief voor de geschiedenis der Oude Hollandsche zending, 343–5. Further on these duties, see Lieburg, ‘Het personeel van de Indische kerk’.
31 The Hague, Nationaal Archief: 1.04.02 Nr. 235, s.d. 30 Aug. 1655; Zuiderbaan, ‘The Historical Background’, 43.
32 Amsterdam SA: 379 Inv. Classis Amst., 2.1, 157 (uitgezonden predikanten 1636–1663), p. 329.
33 Amsterdam SA: 379 Inv. Classis Amst., 2.1, 157, p. 333. The presentation of Driessen and other potential candidates, a routine matter at the time, was not mentioned in the minutes of the Lords’s meeting.
34 Duivenvoorde et al., ‘Quenching the thirst’; Post et al., ‘The Intertidal Springs near the Vergulde Draak wreck site’.
35 Leibrandt , Precis, 317.
36 On literacy in the VOC more broadly see Gerritsen, ‘Schrijven aan boord van de VOC’, 38–9.
37 See the works cited in note 3, above, and more generally Gibbs, ‘The Archaeology of Crisis’; Goldblatt, ‘Ellis-Van Creveld Syndrome’.
38 Duivenvoorde et al., ‘Hoaxes and Folklore’.
39 Fuller, The Legend of Sam Chalwell; Fuller, Gilt Dragon at Greenhead; Gerritsen, ‘Marooned Mariners and Mudmaps’; Zanden, The Lost White Tribes of Australia; Veldt, The New Holland Story, especially 178–82, concerning DNA research.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Leigh T. I. Penman
Leigh T. I. Penman is a research fellow at the Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, Monash University, Australia, and a member of the Global Encounters Research Project funded by the Australian Research Council. He is the author of Hope and Heresy (2019), The Lost History of Cosmopolitanism (2021), By His Sword (forthcoming) and numerous articles concerning early modern religious and intellectual history.