SHIPWRECK OF THE JONGE THOMAS. 433 
money, till at length they received support at the compa- 
ny's expense, and were again taken into its service. 
Another action, honorable to humanity, deserves the more 
to be recorded, as it shows that at all times, and in all places, 
there are both good and considerate people, as well as those 
who have nothing human but the shape. An old man of the 
name of Woltemad, by birth an European, who was at this 
time the keeper of the beasts at the menagerie, near the gar- 
den, had a son in the citadel, who was a corporal, and among 
the first who had been ordered out to Paarden Island, (Horse 
Island,) where a guard was to be placed for the wrecked 
goods. This worthy veteran borrowed a horse and rode out 
in the morning with a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread for 
his son's breakfast. This happened so early that the gibbet 
had not yet been erected, nor the edict posted up, to point out 
to the traveler the nearest road to eternity. The hoary sire 
had no sooner delivered to his son the refreshments he had 
brought him, and heard the lamentations of the distressed 
crew from the wreck, than he resolved to ride his horse, 
which was a good swimmer, to the wreck, with a view of sa- 
ving some of them. He returned safe with two of the unfor- 
tiinate sufferers, and repeated this dangerous trip six times, 
each time bringing with him two men, and thus saved, in all, 
fourteen persons. The horse was by this time so much fa- 
tigued that he did not think it prudent to venture out again .; 
but the cries and entreaties of the poor sufferers on the wreck 
increasing, he ventured one trip more, which proved so unfor- 
tunate that he lost his own life, as on this occasion too many 
rushed upon him at once, some catching hold of the horse's 
tail, and others of the bridle, by which means the horse, wea- 
i-ied out and too heavy laden, turned heels over head, and all 
drowned together. 
This noble and heroic action of a superannuated old man 
shows that a great number of lives might probably have been 
saved, if a strong rope had been fastened by one end to the 
wreck, and by the other to the shore. When the storms and 
waves had subsided, the ship was found to lie at so small a 
distance from the land that one might almost have leaped 
from her upon the shore. 
On receiving intelligence of the above event, the East-In- 
dia Directors in Holland ordered one of their ships to be call- 
ed the Woltemad, and the story of his humanity to be paint- 
ed on the stern ; they farther enjoined the regency of the 
Cape to provide for his descendants. 
37 
