Second edition. The illustration is comprised of an engraved title vignette showing a celestial globe, and 8 full-page plates, all after the drawings of Potgieter, showing a variety of subjects, including a pair of natives from Magellan with ships in the background and a group of kneeling Indians, a group of hunters catching penguins, a view of Santiago de Chile, amongst others. The first edition was published in 1600 under the title Wijdtloopigh verhael van tgende de vijf schepen, and was later also reproduced in Colijn´s collection of voyages, Oost-Indische end West-Indische voyagien (1619), later in an abridgement in Commelin´s Begin ende Voortgang, and before all, in 1601 as volume 9 of De Bry´s collection of voyages, the Great Voyages, published along with the Acosta.
Regarding Weert´s voyage, "In 1598 he sailed with the fleet of Jacques Mahu... During the voyage, De Weert, who had been transferred to the ship Liefde, was separated from the fleet in the Strait of Magellan... En route [back to Amsterdam] he [Weert] sighted what were probably the Jason Islands (...), off the Falkland Islands, which were thereafter known for some time after as the Sebaldes, or 'Sebald's Islands'. Unable to land to replenish his supplies, De Weert eventually reached Holland in July 1600 with only thirty-six of his original 105 crew left alive. He had at least brought home the only ship of the fleet to survive the voyage" (Howgego W21).
Potgieter (1574 – 1627) was a Dutch surgeon who embarked in 1598 in a fateful Dutch expedition to the East commanded by Jacques Mahu, which turned out to be the first Dutch expedition of the Strait of Magellan, his ship, captained by Sebald de Weert, separated from the rest of the party due to storms, which caused the discovery of the small islands inhabited by penguins (Henze V, 469); during this period, they accidentally encountered the fleet of Olivier Van Noort, sailing on a different expedition which resulted in the first Dutch circumnavigation, Weert tried to join, however his crew were already unfit to keep up with van Noort´s fleet, thus deciding to return to Amsterdam. The expedition encountered other issues, and by the time they returned to Amsterdam, almost two thirds of the crew had perished. Potgieter barely got to see the Pacific before the desition of returning to Amsterdam was taken, the rest of the ships were either lost, imprisoned in Valparaiso, or their crews decimated by hostile Patagonians natives.
Historical background:
The Magellan Company, under the command of Simon de Cordes, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in early 1599. It reached the Rio de la Plata by late March, and entered the Strait of Magellan on 6 April. Soon after, the Company killed several thousand petrels for food, possibly some penguins and seals as well. Adverse weather hampered their voyage, and De Cordes ordered his crew to shelter the ships in what is now called Fortesque Bay, where they remained until late August. Difficult conditions persisted, and the Company lost over a hundred men. In early May of 1600, a violent encounter took place between group of shipmen sent ashore to search for seals and indigenous people, whom the Dutch accounts describe as giants of 10 to 11 feet tall.
Sabin 64582; Alden-L. 617/117; Tiele 545.
