To Make The Moluccas, And The Islands Dependent On
Them, Their Frontier, And To Omit Nothing That Should Appear
Necessary To Prevent Strangers, Or Even Dutch Ships Not Belonging To
The Company, From Ever Navigating Those Seas, And Consequently From
Ever Being Acquainted With The Countries That Lie In Them.
How well
they have prosecuted the first maxim has been very largely shown in
a foregoing article, wherein we have an ample description of the
mighty empire in the hands of their East India Company.
As for the
second maxim, the reader, in the perusal of Funnel's, Dampier's, and
other voyages, but especially the first, must be satisfied that it
is what they have constantly at heart, and which, at all events,
they are determined to pursue, at least with regard to strangers;
and as to their own countrymen, the usage they gave to James le
Maire and his people is a proof that cannot be contested.
Those things being considered, it is very plain that the Dutch, or
rather the Dutch East India Company, are fully persuaded that they
have already as munch or more territory in the East Indies than they
can well manage, and therefore they neither do nor ever will think
of settling New Guinea, Carpentaria, New Holland, or any of the
adjacent islands, till either their trade declines in the East
Indies, or they are obliged to exert themselves on this side to
prevent other nations from reaping the benefits that might accrue to
them by their planting those countries. But this is not all; for as
the Dutch have no thoughts of settling these countries themselves,
they have taken all imaginable pains to prevent any relations from
being published which might invite or encourage any other nation to
make attempts this way; and I am thoroughly persuaded that this very
account of Captain Pelsart's shipwreck would never have come into
the world if it had not been thought it would contribute to this
end, or, in other words, would serve to frighten other nations from
approaching such an inhospitable coast, everywhere beset with rocks
absolutely void of water, and inhabited by a race of savages more
barbarous, and, at the same time, more miserable than any other
creatures in the world.
The author of this voyage remarks, for the use of seamen, that in
the little island occupied by Weybhays, after digging two pits, they
were for a considerable time afraid to use the water, having found
that these pits ebbed and flowed with the sea; but necessity at last
constraining them to drink it, they found it did them no hurt. The
reason of the ebbing and flowing of these pits was their nearness to
the sea, the water of which percolated through the sand, lost its
saltness, and so became potable, though it followed the motions of
the ocean whence it came.
THE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN ABEL JANSEN TASMAN FOR THE DISCOVERY OF
SOUTHERN COUNTRIES.
1642-43.
By direction of the Dutch East India Company.
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