Document: Instructions for captain Vonck

Instruction for Captain Marten Janse Vonck, now Commander of the ketch the Hope, destined for Fatherland.

Commander Marten Jansen Vonck shall at sight hereof, wind and weather permitting, set sail with the ketch under his command, steering towards the Azores in order to reconnoiter them, but finding that he has passed them, he shall pursue his voyage towards the channel, and if wind and weather are favorable, he shall try to run through the channel and then make the first best port that opportunity presents, whether in Holland, Zealand, or even in Flanders; but if the wind be unfavorable for the channel, he shall not remain cruizing but repair to the Caronies,[1] or some other port in Galicia, and thence transmit, under cover of private merchants, the thickest packages of letters to their Noble Mightinesses the States of Zealand, the Board of Admiralty at Amsterdam, and Mr. Cunningham, adding a short note of his arrival at that port; he shall retain the three smallest packets, and not send them off until two or three weeks after, if he remain there so long, for he will be at liberty to try and run through the channel should the wind be favorable. If he be taken by any of the enemy, which God forbid, he shall take good heed to throw his letters overboard into the sea, well fastened to weights, with which view, as soon as he will be out at sea, he shall collect all the letters that may be in the possession of the sailors, and keep them well fastened together, for the public service so demands it. This 10th January, 1674.