I Found This Island
Fifty German Miles More To The East Than I Expected; That Is To Say,
3 Degrees 33 Minutes Of Longitude.
This island was so called from
Prince Maurice, being before known by the name of Cerne.
It is
about fifteen leagues in circumference, and has a very fine harbour,
at the entrance of which there is one hundred fathoms water. The
country is mountainous; but the mountains are covered with green
trees. The tops of these mountains are so high that they are lost
in the clouds, and are frequently covered by thick exhalations or
smoke that ascends from them. The air of this island is extremely
wholesome. It is well furnished with flesh and fowl; and the sea on
its coasts abounds with all sorts of fish. The finest ebony in the
world grows here. It is a tall, straight tree of a moderate
thickness, covered with a green bark, very thick, under which the
wood is as black as pitch, and as close as ivory. There are other
trees on the island, which are of a bright red, and a third sort as
yellow as wax. The ships belonging to the East India Company
commonly touch at this island for refreshments on their passage to
Batavia.
I left this island on the 8th of October, and continued my course to
the south to the latitude of 40 degrees or 41 degrees, having a
strong north-west wind; and finding the needle vary 23, 24, and 25
degrees to the 22nd of October, I sailed from that time to the 29th
to the east, inclining a little to the south, till I arrived in the
latitude of 45 degrees 47 minutes south, and in the longitude of 89
degrees 44 minutes; and then observed the variation of the needle to
be 26 degrees 45 minutes towards the west.
As our author was extremely careful in this particular, and observed
the variation of the needle with the utmost diligence, it may not be
amiss to take this opportunity of explaining this point, so that the
importance of his remarks may sufficiently appear. The needle
points exactly north only in a few places, and perhaps not
constantly in them; but in most it declines a little to the east, or
to the west, whence arises eastern and western declination: when
this was first observed, it was attributed to certain excavations or
hollows in the earth, to veins of lead, stone, and other such-like
causes. But when it was found by repeated experiments that this
variation varied, it appeared plainly that none of those causes
could take place; since if they had, the variation in the same place
must always have been the same, whereas the fact is otherwise.
Here at London, for instance, in the year 1580, the variation was
observed to be 11 degrees 17 minutes to the east; in the year 1666,
the variation was here 34 minutes to the west; and in the year 1734,
the variation was somewhat more than 1 degree west.
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