132 PROF. W. J. DAKIN : EXPEDITION TO THE 



two of the islands, only a few boys and some women being spared. A 

 few men escaped, however, from this hell and reached the third island with 

 the news, whereupon the party (now forty-five in all) led by a man named 

 Weybehays resolved to defend themselves. Cornelis, who had assumed the 

 title of Captain-General, sent two expeditions against them, but these being 

 defeated lie determined to gain his ends by more subtle means. Unfortunately 

 for himself, he was hoist with his own petard, taken prisoner, and some of his 

 men were killed. The rest of the mutineers remained on their islands 

 awaiting the arrival of Pelsart, who had been given assistance and a ship at 

 Batavia. He reached the Abrolhos on September 13, eagerly awaited by 

 the two opposing parties, but four of the third island defenders managed to 

 reach him first and acquainted him with the sad state of affairs. When the 

 mutineers arrived to capture the ship, Pelsart and his men were ready for 

 them. The boarding party was captured, and the rest of the ruffians on 

 their island experienced a like fate. After an investigation of the tragedy, 

 Cornelis and his associates were tortured and put to death— they had 

 murdered over 120 innocent souls, — two other prisoners were marooned on 

 the coast, the survivors of the wreck and mutiny eventually reaching 

 Batavia in safety. 



The disaster to Pelsart's ship was not the only one experienced by the 

 Dutch at the Abrolhos — for which reefs their ships seemed to have an 

 unfortunate liking. The ' Luytddorf ' is supposed to have been lost here in 

 1711, whilst in 1727 the 'Zeewyk^ was wrecked on the western reef of the 

 Pelsart Atoll. 



Pelsart described some of the forms of life met with on the islands and in 

 so doing gave a most interesting account of the wallaby (Macropus eugenii, 

 Desm.) which still abounds on two of the islands. This was one of the first 

 written descriptions of a member of the kangaroo family to be given to the 

 world. The diagnosis runs as follows : — " Besides we found in these islands 

 large numbers of a species of cats which are very strange creatures. They 

 are about the size of a hare, the head resembling the head of a civet cat, the 

 fore paws are very short, about the length of a finger, on which the animal 

 has five small nails or fingers resembling those of a monkey's fore paw. The 

 two hind legs on the contrary are upwards of half an ell in length, and it 

 walks on these only on the flat of the heavy part of the leg so that it does 

 not run very fast. Its tail is very long like that of a long-tailed monkey. 

 If it eat it sits on its hind legs and touches its food with its fore paws just 

 like a squirrel or monkey. 



"Their manner of generation or procreation is exceedingly strange and 

 highly worth observing. Below the belly the female carries a pouch into 

 which you may put your hand. Inside this pouch are her nipples ; we have 

 found that the young ones grow up in this pouch with the nipples in their 

 mouths. We have seen some young ones lying there which were only the 



