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On the 11th January, 1600, de Weert made sail for Penguin Islands, and next day came to anchor under the smaller of these islands, where he immediately landed with thirty-eight men in tolerable health, leaving the pilots and other seamen on board. Leaving three men to keep the boat, the rest fell to killing birds, of which there were a prodigious quantity in the island.
"Though not a circumnavigation, it seems necessary to give an account of this voyage of Sebald de Weert, by way of supplement to that of Oliver de Noort; because De Weert was fitted out with the intention of sailing by the Straits of Magellan to India, and because it is difficult to find so good a description of these famous straits as he has given.
The lays of the minstrels and the romances of chivalry were early translated, and a Dutch version of "Reynard the Fox" was made in the middle of the thirteenth century. The most important work of the fourteenth century is the "New Doctrine," by De Weert, which, for the freedom of its expression on religious subjects, may be regarded as one of the precursors of the Reformation.
That gentleman had still remained in his solitary mansion at Weert, notwithstanding the artful means which had been used to lure him from that "desert." It is singular that the very same person who, according to a well-informed Catholic contemporary, had been most eager to warn Egmont of his danger, had also been the foremost instrument for effecting the capture of the Admiral.
Fortunately a small vessel belonging to the bishop of St Thomas, taken by the Dutch at Praya, arrived in the bay, to which de Weert removed all the maize. He also took two female sea tortoises, in which were above 600 eggs, of which they made many good meals.
The actors disappeared one after another from the scene; the emperor, Ferdinand II., had died on the 15th of February, 1637; the election of his son, Ferdinand III., had not been recognized by France and Sweden; Bernard of Saxe-Weimar succumbed, at thirty-four years of age, on the 15th of July, 1639, after having beaten, in the preceding year, the celebrated John van Weert, whom he sent a prisoner to Paris.
For this reason, Mr. Weert would no longer have them in his house, making them leave, although it was well in the evening; for the Weerts said they could not endure it. Indeed, God the Lord will not let that pass by, for it is not far from blasphemy. He will bring them to justice, if they be of His elect. He and his wife were probably the first Quakers in Pennsylvania.
Not an entirely disinterested man, perhaps, but an honest one, as the world went, mediocre in mind, but brave, generous, and direct of purpose, goaded by the shafts of calumny, hunted down by the whole pack which fawned upon power as it grew more powerful, he now retreated to his "desert," as he called his ruined home at Weert, where he stood at bay, growling defiance at the Regent, at Philip, at all the world.
The fleet fitted out for this expedition consisted of the Hope of 500 tons, with 130 men, commanded by James Mahu, admiral; the Love or Charity of 300 tons, and 110 men, commanded by Simon de Cordes, vice-admiral; the Faith of 320 tons, and 100 men, of which Gerard van Beuningen was captain; the Fidelity of 220 tons, with 86 men, captain Jurian Buckholt; and a yacht of 150 tons and 112 men, called the Merry Messenger, captain Sebald de Weert.
De Weert was one of the best seamen in Holland, and lived to distinguish himself afterwards by many more successful enterprises; and I persuade myself the reader will be pleased to see the firmness of an able commander, struggling against a long series of misfortunes.
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