“Finding anchorage for our ship at the S.E. part of the southern group, near to a narrow strip of sand on the edge of the reef, which was scarcely large enough to be called an island, we found on it some remains of large timber, evidently a beam of a ship, through it an iron bolt of considerable dimensions; but corrosion had gone on steadily so many years, that the slightest touch reduced it to the size of small wire. Near this were found various other fragments, which most probably had been parts of the same vessel; but the most remarkable item was a copper coin of the East India N. Company, a doit bearing date 1620 (I think), which was good evidence that these were some of the remains of commodore Pelsart, in the ship _Batavia_. So the anchorage which we occupied was named by us Batavia Roads, and that particular group Pelsart’s Group. On another island at the west side of the same group we found many other relics of more recent date, among which another doit, which was dated 1700, which we concluded marked the position of the loss of the _Zeewijk_ in 1720. On this island we found a large number of small glass bottles, about the size and form of Dutch cheeses, very orderly arranged in rows on the ground; a few very large glass bottles of similar form; some large brass buckles, which had been gilded, and much of the gilt still existed. Numerous small clay pipes, which served to solace our crew with the help of tobacco, as doubtless they had done long ago for former owners. And one brass gun, of about three-pounds calibre, with an iron swivel, the iron, however, was diminished by corrosion to nearly nothing; it had a movable chamber for loading it, which was fitted for a square hole, on the upper part of the gun near the breech. But what was most remarkable about it was that vermilion paint was still on the muzzle. The island on which this was found we called Gun Island, and the passage between Pelsart Group and the middle one was called Zeewyk Channel.” I have had the good fortune to find among the papers of the late East India Company, what was written by the government of Batavia about the loss of the ship _Zeewijk_ to the directors at home, together with a map made by the skipper Jan Steyns, while on these shoals. “_To the Directors of the Assembly of the Seventeen, etc._