petrusplancius (petrusplancius) wrote in linguaphiles,
petrusplancius
petrusplancius
linguaphiles

A little Dutch puzzle

A phrase from an early C18 letter, some travellers in distress have been desperately trying to find some people in an apparently deserted stretch of land, 'maar God beetert niemand gevonden</i>'; from the context this should mean something like 'but alas to God found no one', but I can't make out the meaning of 'beetert' here. Any suggestions gratefully received, it may be obvious to a native speaker!

edit: solution found, thanks everyone!
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