When This Was Done, And They Had
Effectually Driven Out The English, Who Were Likewise Settled In
Them, They Fixed
The seat of their government in the island of
Amboyna, which lay very convenient for the discovery of the southern
Countries; which, therefore, they prosecuted with great diligence
from the year 1619 to the time of Captain Pelsart's shipwreck; that
is, for the space of twenty years.
But after they removed the seat of their government from Amboyna to
Batavia, they turned their views another way, and never made any
voyage expressly for discoveries on that side, except the single one
of Captain Tasman, of which we are to speak presently. It was from
this period of time that they began to take new measures, and having
made their excellent settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, resolved
to govern their trade to the East Indies by these two capital
maxims: 1. To extend their trade all over the Indies, and to fix
themselves so effectually in the richest countries as to keep all,
or at least the best and most profitable part of, their commerce to
themselves; 2. 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.
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