A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 10: Arranged in systematic order: Forming a complete history of the origin and progress of navigation, discovery, and commerce, by sea and land, from the earliest ages to the present time.Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 10: Arranged in systematic order: Forming a complete history of the origin and progress of navigation, discovery, and commerce, by sea and land, from the earliest ages to the present time.
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
While the fleet lay in this bay, the admiral ordered his long-boat to be
put upon the stocks, to be enlarged and altered into a pinnace, which
was named the Postillion, and the command of her was given to the second
pilot of the Hope. Having no provisions for making broth, Captain de
Weert landed on the 27th July, in order to catch seals; and while he was
ashore, so great a storm arose that he was obliged to remain two days
and two nights, before he could get back to his ship, and caught
nothing. After enduring great hardships in this _Green bay_,[89] and
which the Dutch named the Bay of de Cordes, they set sail on the 23d of
August, having the wind at N.E. but next day the weather became so calm,
that they were obliged to put into a great bay on the south side of the
straits. Here, to perpetuate the memory of so dangerous and
extraordinary a voyage into these straits, to which no nation had
hitherto sent so many or such large ships, the general instituted a new
order of knighthood, of which he made his six principal officers
knights. They bound themselves by oath, never to do or consent to any
thing contrary to their honour or reputation, whatever might be the
dangers or extremities to which they were exposed, even death itself;
nor to do or suffer to be done any thing prejudicial to the interests of
their country, or of the voyage in which they were now engaged. They
also solemnly promised, freely to expose their lives against all the
enemies of their nation, and to use their utmost endeavours to conquer
those dominions whence the king of Spain procured so much gold and
silver, by which he was enabled to carry on the war against their
country. This ceremony was performed ashore on the eastern coast of the
straits, in as orderly a manner as the place and occasion would permit,
and the order was named of _The Lion set free_, in allusion to the
Belgic lion, the cognizance of their country, which they professed to
use all their endeavours to free from the Spanish yoke. After this
ceremony, a tablet was erected on the top of a high pillar, on which the
names of the new-made knights were inscribed, and the bay was named the
_Bay of Knights_.
[Footnote 89: This seems the same formerly named Great bay.--E.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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