United States or Antigua and Barbuda ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Five months longer the fleet, under command of Admiral de Cordes, who had succeeded to the command, struggled in those straits, where, as if in the home of Eolus, all the winds of heaven seemed holding revel; but indifference to danger, discipline, and devotion to duty marked the conduct of the adventurers, even as those qualities had just been distinguishing their countrymen at the other pole.
Admiral de Cordes raised on the shore, at the western mouth of the channel, a rude memorial with an inscription that the Netherlanders were the first to effect this dangerous passage with a fleet of heavy ships. On the following day, in commemoration of the event, he founded an order of knighthood.
The achievements, the sufferings, and the triumphs of Barendz and Cordes, Heemskerk, Van der Hagen, and many others, have been slightly indicated in these pages. The contributions to botany, mineralogy, geometry, geography, and zoology, of Linschoten, Plancius, Wagenaar, and Houtmann, and so many other explorers of pole and tropic, can hardly be overrated.
He was yesterday as I have learned executed by a party of your Majesty's Provost Marshal, to prevent, doubtless, his standing here to verify what he said of this matter to the Duke of Burgundy, in presence of his Council, and of me, Philip Crevecoeur de Cordes."
On advising with the other captains, and learning the quantity of water in each ship, de Cordes gave orders that such as had most should give part to the others, and that the allowance of provisions and water should be diminished, and as fresh water was not to be expected for three or four months, they were directed to gather rain-water when that could be had.
Going next day farther towards a gulf, he was rejoiced to see a mast behind a low point, where he found the Fidelity, with which ship he had to leave his small boat to assist in fishing for her anchors and cables, which she had lost in the late storm. He then took his leave, returning to his own ship, little dreaming he had taken his last farewell of Captain de Cordes.
Word Of The Day