On 15 January 1708, under the command of Joris Vis, the Concordia set out from Batavia on a return trip to the Netherlands with two other VOC ships; Zuiderberg and Mercurius.

[3] Of the 130 passengers and crew on board, there were several women returning home and some Balinese being deported from the Dutch East Indies to the Cape of Good Hope, due to bad conduct.

The Captain of Mercurius reported that Concordia and Zuiderburg had last been sighted together in open seas to the south of Sunda Strait on 5 February 1708, in bad weather.

[4][5] The newspaper story claimed that Nixon had spoken to the settlers in a broken form of old Dutch,[12] and the leader or chief of the group was a descendant of an officer whose name was "van Baerle".

Nixon stated: ... their fathers were compelled by famine, after the loss of their great vessel, to travel towards the rising sun, carrying with them as much of the stores as they could, during which many died; and by the wise advice of their ten sisters they crossed a ridge of land, and meeting with a rivulet on the other side, followed its course and were led to the spot they now inhabit, where they have continued ever since.