This Account Of Our Author's Seems To Have Been Taken Upon Memory,
And Is Not Very Exact.
Schovten's seamen, or rather the petty
officer who commanded his long boat, insulted the natives grossly
before they offered
Any injury to his people; and then,
notwithstanding they fired upon them with small arms, the islanders
obliged them to retreat; so that they were forced to bring the great
guns to bear upon the island before they could reduce them. These
people do not deserve to be treated as savages, because Schovten
acknowledges that they had been engaged in commerce with the
Spaniards; as appeared by their having iron pots, glass beads, and
pendants, with other European commodities, before he came thither.
He also tells us that they were a very civilised people, their
country well cultivated and very fruitful; that they had a great
many boats, and other small craft, which they navigated with great
dexterity. He adds also, that they gave him a very distinct account
of the neighbouring islands, and that they solicited him to fire
upon the Arimoans, with whom it seems they are always at war; which,
however, he refused to do, unless provoked to it by some injury
offered by those people. It is therefore very apparent that the
inhabitants of Moa are a people with whom any Europeans, settled in
their neighbourhood, might without any difficulty settle a commerce,
and receive considerable assistance from them in making discoveries.
But perhaps some nations are fitter for these kind of expeditions
than others, as being less apt to make use of their artillery and
small arms upon every little dispute; for as the inhabitants of Moa
are well enough acquainted with the superiority which the Europeans
have over them, it cannot be supposed that they will ever hazard
their total destruction by committing any gross act of cruelty upon
strangers who visit their coast; and it is certainly very unfair to
treat people as savages and barbarians, merely for defending
themselves when insulted or attacked without cause. The instance
Captain Tasman gives us of their delivering up the man who wounded
his sailor is a plain proof of this; and as to the diffidence and
suspicion which some later voyagers have complained of with respect
to the inhabitants of this island, they must certainly be the
effects of the bad behaviour of such Europeans as this nation have
hitherto dealt with, and would be effectually removed, if ever they
had a settled experience of a contrary conduct. The surest method
of teaching people to behave honestly towards us is to behave
friendly and honestly towards them, and then there is no great
reason to fear, that such as give evident proofs of capacity and
civility in the common affairs of life should be guilty of treachery
that must turn to their own disadvantage.
CHAPTER XVIII: PROSECUTES HIS VOYAGE TO CERAM.
On the 12th of May, being then in the latitude of 54 minutes south,
and in the longitude of 153 degrees 17 minutes, we found the
variation 6 degrees 30 minutes to the east.
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