SHIPWRECK OF THE JONGE THOMAS, 431 
time afterward sent down to St. Juan as captain of the Re- 
source, to bring what were left of the poor devils to Blue 
Fields, on the Musquito shore, and then to Jamaica, where 
they arrived after three months absence, and without a prize, 
though I looked out hard off Porto Bello and Carthagena. 
Found that in my absence I had been appointed captain of 
the Tobago, where I remain his Majesty's most true and faith- 
ful servant, and my dear mother's most dutiful son. 
ARCHER. 
SHIPWRECK OF THE JONGE THOMAS, 
A Dutch East-Indiaman, at the Cape of Good Hope, June 
2d, 1773. 
On the 1st of June, 1773, being Whit-Monday, there aros« 
at the Cape a very high north-west wind, with violent hurri- 
canes and showers of rain. At night, in this storm, the Jonge 
Thomas, one of the four ships belonging to the company that 
were still in the road, having lost all her anchors, one after 
the other, was driven on the sands near the shore at Zoul Ri- 
ver, and, in consequence of her heavy lading, parted into pie- 
ces in the middle. The surge rose to an amazing height on 
the shore, and Zoul River was so swollen as to be almost im- 
passable. It is true, that from the middle of May to the middle 
of August, the company's ships were prohibited from lying 
in the road ; yet it sometimes happened that the governor 
permitted it, in order to avoid the inconveniences of victual- 
ing and lading the ship in False Bay. Independently of the 
loss sustained by the company, as well in ships as merchan- 
dise, a number of the crew likewise unfortunately perished 
on this occasion. They were lost for want of assistance, and 
met A\dth a deplorable death very near the land. Only sixty- 
three men escaped : one hundred and forty-nine being unhap- 
pily drowned. 
The ship had scarcely struck, which happened just at day- 
break, when the most efficacious measures were employed to 
save as much as possible of the company's property that might 
chance to be cast on shore ; though not the least care was 
taken to deliver a single soul of the crew from their forlorn 
and miserable situation. Thirty men were instantly ordered 
