Departures of note

After the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia ran aground on a reef in the Houtman Abrolhos off the west Australian coast in June 1629, commander Francisco Pelsaert and senior officers sailed for Java in a small boat, leaving more than 200 survivors—including Jeronimus Cornelisz—on the barren islands. With no appointed authority left behind, Cornelisz, a former apothecary who had joined the voyage to escape a ruined career, established himself as leader. Over the following two months, he and his followers killed between 110 and 124 men, women, and children, using drowning, strangulation, bludgeoning, and hacking. Seven women were forced into sexual slavery, with Cornelisz reserving one survivor, Lucretia Jans, for himself. He also sent a group of soldiers, including Wiebbe Hayes, to a nearby island to search for water—a move that ultimately led to his downfall when the soldiers found fresh water and wallabies, and were warned by escapees of the massacres.

Cornelisz was born around 1598 in Leeuwarden, Dutch Republic, into a nonconformist Mennonite household. He trained as an apothecary and practiced in his hometown until 1627, when he left after disagreements with the town council. He moved to Haarlem, where his infant son died of syphilis after being placed with a wet nurse; the ensuing scandal and legal action destroyed his reputation and business. He then took service with the Dutch East India Company, sailing on the Batavia in October 1628. During the voyage, he allegedly plotted with skipper Ariaen Jacobsz to mutiny against Pelsaert, though the ship ran aground before any such plan could be enacted.

After the soldiers on the nearby island fortified their position, Cornelisz led two failed attacks against them. He then went personally to negotiate, but was captured, and three of his lieutenants were killed. A rescue by the mutineer Wouter Loos freed him, but during the ensuing skirmish, Pelsaert's rescue ship, the Sardam, appeared on the horizon. Both sides sent boats to the ship to present their versions of events; Hayes reached it first, and the mutineers surrendered. Cornelisz and his accomplices were tortured into confession. He and six others were executed on the island, with each having a hand cut off before hanging; Cornelisz, as the leader, had both hands removed. Two others, including a cabin boy, were marooned on the Australian mainland, becoming the first Europeans to live there, though nothing more was heard of them.

Pelsaert salvaged silver from the wreck and returned to Batavia with 70 survivors and 16 mutineers, all of whom were tried, tortured, and executed. Cornelisz's reputation never recovered, and he died of disease the following year. His story was popularized in Pelsaert's journals, published in 1647, which instilled fear of the West Australian coast in Dutch sailors. Historian Mike Dash, in his analysis of the incident, theorized that Cornelisz was likely psychopathic and possibly suffered from neurosyphilis, as suggested by his erratic behavior, grandiose dreams of a personal kingdom, and conviction that God inspired his deeds.