Death of a companion
Date
1764
Creator
Matthys Balen (1684 - 1766, Dutch) , Draughtsman
Object type
Library reference
RCNR60744
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 198mm
width (print): 178mm
width (print): 178mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Landscape showing an incident on the Juan Fernández Islands, when a member of Jacob Roggeveen’s expedition was killed during a hunt for goat and geese. The Dutchman is seen falling from rocks on the left of the image. On the right are the three Dutch ships Arend, Thienhoven, and Afrikaansche Galey, anchored off a beach with walrus and seal.
Plate from the book Tweejarige Reyze rondom de wereld ter nader ontdekkinge der onbekende zuydlanden, met drie schepen in het jaar 1721 (Dordrecht, Hendrik de Koning, 1764). The inscription above is torn, originally: ‘Pag.39’. Inscribed lower left ‘M: Balen inv.’
The accompanying text states that: ‘Een onzer Boots gezellen, die een zeer braaf en wakker karel was, raakte hier mede jammerlyk aan zyn eynde; wly hy door zyne grooten yver in het jagen van ons was afgedwaalt, en op de scherpte en steyle totzen gevoert, daar hy, met het naaken van der nacht, zoekende van daan te geraken, van boven neer storten. Des morgens vonden wy het doode lyk aan den voet der rots, door den val jammerlyk gekneust; zyn snaphaan was wel in hondert stukken gebroken’. [One of our ship’s company, who was a very well-behaved and alert fellow, was also sadly injured. He had wandered away from us in the hunt…with night approaching and trying to get down to the ground, he plunged from above. In the morning we found him dead at the foot of the rock, bruised by the fall; his snaplock was broken into hundreds of pieces’.
The expedition of Jacob Roggeveen (1659-1729) Dutch explorer voyaged across the Pacific in the years 1721-1722.
Plate from the book Tweejarige Reyze rondom de wereld ter nader ontdekkinge der onbekende zuydlanden, met drie schepen in het jaar 1721 (Dordrecht, Hendrik de Koning, 1764). The inscription above is torn, originally: ‘Pag.39’. Inscribed lower left ‘M: Balen inv.’
The accompanying text states that: ‘Een onzer Boots gezellen, die een zeer braaf en wakker karel was, raakte hier mede jammerlyk aan zyn eynde; wly hy door zyne grooten yver in het jagen van ons was afgedwaalt, en op de scherpte en steyle totzen gevoert, daar hy, met het naaken van der nacht, zoekende van daan te geraken, van boven neer storten. Des morgens vonden wy het doode lyk aan den voet der rots, door den val jammerlyk gekneust; zyn snaphaan was wel in hondert stukken gebroken’. [One of our ship’s company, who was a very well-behaved and alert fellow, was also sadly injured. He had wandered away from us in the hunt…with night approaching and trying to get down to the ground, he plunged from above. In the morning we found him dead at the foot of the rock, bruised by the fall; his snaplock was broken into hundreds of pieces’.
The expedition of Jacob Roggeveen (1659-1729) Dutch explorer voyaged across the Pacific in the years 1721-1722.
Associated place