I.

VOYAGES

FROM

HOLLAND TO AMERICA,

A.D. 1632 TO 1644.

BY

DAVID PETERSON DE VRIES.

TRANSLATED FROM THE DUTCH FOR THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES,

BY HENRY C. MURPHY.

SECOND SERIES.-VOL. III.

INTRODUCTION.

Ir is remarkable that, after Hudson, only one of the numerous Dutch navigators and travellers has, as far as is known, published a journal or narrative, of voyages to New Netherland, during the period of the possession of the country by their nation.

Without stopping to speculate upon the cause, we deem the fact a sufficient warrant to authorize an attempt to render the account which stands thus prominently alone, accessible to the English reader; particularly as the work has merits of its own, which make it a valuable and necessary aid to those who would correctly understand the ante-Anglican portion of our history. It bears the following title: KORTE HISTORIAEL ENDE JOURNAELS AENTEYCKENINGE VAN VERSCHEYDEN VOYAGIENS IN DE VIER DEELEN DES WERELDTS-ROnde, ALS EUROPA, AFRICA, ASIA, ENDE AMERIKA GEDAEN, DOOR D. DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES, ARTILLERIJ-MEESTER VANDE ED: M: HEEREN GECOMMITTEERDE RADEN VAN STATEN VAN WESTVRIESLANDT ENDE 'T NOORDER-QUARTIER WAERIN VERHAELT WERD WAT BATAILJES BY TE WATER GEDAEN HEEFT: YDER LANDTSCHAP ZIJN GEDIERTE, GEVOGELT, WAT SOORTE VAN VISSEN ENDE WAT WILDE MENSCHEN NAER 'T LEVEN GECONTERFAEYT, ENDE VAN DE BossCHEN ENDE RAVIEREN MET HAER VRUCHTEN. T' HOORN voor David Pietersz. de Vries, Artillerij-Meester van 't Noorderquartier. Tot Alckmaer, by Symon Cornelisz. Brekegeest. Anno 1655. It is a small quarto volume of 192 pages, printed in blackletter, and is illustrated with a portrait of De Vries, and eighteen plates; two of them representing his encounters with the pirates in the Mediterranean, four relating to scenes in the East Indies, and twelve to the Indians and natural history of America. We cannot

say any thing in favour of the plates connected with his voyages to America. They are for the most part copied from Champlain, and look indeed very much like the identical plates used to illustrate an edition of his voyages to Canada.

The book is one of the rarest to be found,-no printed copy being known to have been extant in this country before the one from which the following translation has been made, and which was obtained by James Lenox, Esq. A part of it in manuscript is among the Du Simitière papers, in the Philadelphia Library; and from that manuscript extracts were translated by Dr. Troost, and published in the first volume of the second series of the collections of the New York Historical Society. We now give the journals of the voyages to America entire; and though there be much in them relating to mere navigating, and sailing directions, and to his voyage to Guiana, of no importance to this portion of the country, yet we deem it due to De Vries, that his relations should be unmutilated; and to the historical reader, that he should know all that the author has written, in connection with his voyages to America. The style is plain and homely, and we have studied to render it faithfully rather than ornately, exhibiting the same characteristic. We have also, as a general rule, given the proper names in the same orthography as that of the original, although the same name is often differently spelt; because this very variation often affords the best means of determining the orthoepy of the word.

The history of De Vries is, in the absence of any known biography, to be gathered by us from his book. He was born at Rochelle, in 1593, whither his father went from Hoorn, after the murder of William of Orange in 1584. His mother was an Amsterdam woman. When he was four years old his parents returned with him to Holland. He appears to have been married before 1620. He made six voyages; the first of which was undertaken in 1618, when he sailed to the Mediterranean for a cargo of grain, returning in about a year's time. During that voyage he was attacked by several Turkish galleys near Cephalonia, but succeeded in repulsing them. In June, 1620, he sailed from the Texel, bound to Newfoundland, for fish-thence to the Mediterranean. He arrived at Newfoundland the last of July. We give here that portion of his journal of this voyage relating to his stay on the American coast, as illustrative in some degree of the nature of the Newfoundland fishery at that time, and as really an American voyage, though not so classed by the author.

"On the 10th of July, a small vessel of Plymouth, England, met

us of about sixty lasts, coming from New England, having been there a-fishing.

The 18th saw a high iceberg; at first it looked like a ship, but on approaching nearer, we found it an iceberg of wonderful height. It seemed impossible that we should encounter ice in July, in latitude 37.

"The 25th we sounded in twenty-seven fathoms on the bank of Newfoundland, and soon discovered it covered with ships fishing for cod. We bore down to them in order to hail them, but observing that I was not a fishing craft, they would not wait for me to come up, and went away. One among the whole remained. As I came close to him, he made sail, but he had lain still too long, and I overtook him. I desired him to strike his topsail, but he would not listen to it, when I let fire at him my bow gun, and put a shot through his mainsail. He immediately struck, and we hailed him as to what latitude he was in, and for some fish. He answered that they had observed no latitude in eight days, as it was always foggy upon the bank. He let slip, on a line from his stern, ten or twelve codfish, which we hauled in, and tied in their place two or three pieces of pork and beef, so that we paid him well for his fish, and let him go.

"The 29th, at night, we came upon the coast of Newfoundland, and as I went up on the watch to walk where one of the two mates was on the look-out, I heard a penguin,* and the cry of one of the look-outs on board of an English vessel, 'Shore! shore!' at which I was frightened, and asked him where the land was. He said on the lee. I told the man at the helm to put his helm a-lee, in order to stand about, which he did, and the ship luckily turned. I went aft to brace the topsail, and stood upon the pilot's house, and as the ship turned we felt the spray of the breakers, so that we could not have gone nearer and saved the ship, cargo and crew. We stood out in the opposite direction from that on which we had run in, and tacked back again at break of day, in order to see where we had been in the night. We found three high rocks, and if we had gone against them, cat nor cur of us would have escaped. We saw here great numbers of Basques' boats, who fled before us, supposing we were freebooters. We at length spoke one, who told us we were in the

*The cry of the penguin long served the mariner as a warning on that foggy coast, and the bird was, in consequence, protected by law from destruction.