The earliest of these is an account of the ship _De Vergulde Draeck_, on the Southland, and the expedition undertaken both from Batavia and the Cape of Good Hope in search of the survivors, etc., drawn up and translated from authentic MS. copies of the logbooks in the Royal Archives at the Hague. _De Vergulde Draeck_, which set sail from the Texel in October 1655, was wrecked on a reef on the west coast, in latitude 30 degrees, 40 minutes, and a hundred and eighteen souls were lost. The news was brought to Batavia by one of the ship’s boats, sixty-eight of the survivors having remained behind, exerting themselves to get their boat afloat again, that they might send some more of their number to Batavia. The Governor General immediately dispatched the flyboat the _Witte Vaclk_, and the yacht the _Goede Hoop_, to the assistance of those men, and also to help in the rescue of the specie and merchandize lost in the _Vergulde Draeck_. This expedition was attended with bad success, as they reached the coast in the winter time. Similar ill luck attended the flyboat _Vinck_, which was directed to touch at New Holland, in its voyage from the Cape to Batavia in 1657, to search for the unfortunate men who had been left behind. The company next dispatched from Batavia two galliots, the _Waeckende Boey_, and the _Emeloort_, on the 1st of January, 1658. These vessels also returned to Batavia in April of the same year, having each of them separated, after parting company by the way, sailed backwards and forwards again and again, and landed parties at several points along the coast. They had also continually fired signal guns night and day, without, however, discovering either any Dutchmen, or the wreck of the vessel. The only things seen were some few planks and blocks, with a piece of the mast, a taffrail, fragments of barrels, and other objects scattered here and there along the coast, and supposed to be remnants of the wreck. This account, with a description of the west coast of the South Land, by the Captain Samuel Volkersen, of the Pink _Waeckende Boey_, is accompanied by copies of original charts, showing the coast visited by this vessel and the _Emeloort_, never before printed. These documents are followed by an extract from the Burgomaster Witsen’s _Noord en Oost Tartarye_, descriptive of the west coast, a portion of which is plainly derived from the account of Abraham Leeman, the mate of the _Waeckende Boey_.