There appeared before me, Pieter Claesz. van Rijn, notary public, admitted by the Court of Holland, residing within the city of Leiden, and the witnesses named below, Thomas Benthle, Englishman, about 40 years old, and Geertgen Gerritsdr., his wife, about 53 years old, both living within the aforesaid city.
They testified and declared, upon their respective consciences, the salvation of their souls, and in men's and women's truth, in place of an oath, at the instance and request of Claes Claverly, likewise an Englishman, living in the aforesaid city of Leiden, to be true that about three quarters of a year ago, without wishing to be bound to the exact time, there came to the house of them, the deponents, together with the requesting party, a certain Master Daniel, merchant of Vlissingen; the said Master Daniel asking the requesting party, in the presence of Dirck Hopkens, likewise an Englishman: "Claes, do you not know me?" — to which he answered: "No" — whereupon Master Daniel, replying, said: "Did you not know me when you gave us sugared mackerel to eat?" — to which the requesting party said: "Now I know you, but I fared no better [or: I had no better of it] than a half share [the original is unclear here], when you were robbed off the coast of England, [a half share] given to him upon coming ashore by captain Jan Smith, to travel along with him." [Translator's note: this sentence is garbled in the original transcription and its precise sense cannot be reconstructed with confidence.] Whereupon the said Master Daniel said: "I admit that you were not the worst of them," to which the requesting party likewise said: "I offered to bring you to the ship at Portsmouth when the captain and his officers were on their ship, and to help you to your goods," which the said Master Daniel admitted to be true, but dared not entrust to the requesting party, on account of the great peril to be expected from it; admitting also that a purse with money had been stolen from him, in recovering which the requesting party had again faithfully helped him, and that when the wine which they had aboard the ship was not good, the requesting party had always supplied them with sugar to sweeten the same wine; also that he had given up his own bed, lying in the ship's berth, and let the said Master Daniel sleep in it, and had gone to lie on a plank himself.
All the aforesaid words having passed, the said Master Daniel further said: "I shall cause you no trouble concerning the aforesaid robbery, but see what you may expect from the merchant at Amsterdam. Nevertheless I admit that you have been a preserver of our lives."
Testifying nothing further, they, the deponents, offered to confirm the foregoing more fully at any time, in case of recolement, under solemn oath, before all lords and courts. The requesting party requested an instrument hereof. Thus done within the city of Leiden, at the house of them, the deponents, on the 18th of June in the year 1618, in the presence of Joris de Windt, serge weaver, and Degry de Pryst, hatter, as witnesses requested hereto.
[Signed:] Thomas Bentley. Geertgen Gerritsdr., her mark. Joris de Windt, his mark. Degry de Pryst, his mark. In my presence, P.C. van Rhijn, notary public, subscribed, 16[..] [the year is cut off in the original transcription].
Translation by Radicae, The Leiden Connection, from the Dutch transcription supplied by Erfgoed Leiden. The reported dialogue about the robbery contains a phrase that is unclear or corrupted in the source text; it has been translated as literally as possible and flagged above rather than smoothed over.
