It Is True That, If
Once A Considerable Settlement Was Made In The Most Southern Part Of
Terra Australis, The Company Might Then Fall Into A Large Commerce
In The Most Valuable East India Goods, Very Probably Gold, And
Spices Of All Sorts:
Yet I cannot think that even these would fall
within the exclusive proviso of their charter; for that was
Certainly intended to hinder their trading in such goods as are
brought hither by our East India Company; and I must confess I see
no difference, with respect to the interest of that company, between
our having cloves, cinnamon, and mace, by the South Sea Company's
ships from Juan Fernandez, and our receiving them from Holland,
after the Dutch East India Company's ships have brought them thither
by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. Sure I am they would come to
us sooner by some months by the way of Cape Horn. If this reasoning
does not satisfy people, but they still remain persuaded that the
South Sea Company ought not to intermeddle with the East India trade
at all, I desire to know why the West India merchants are allowed to
import coffee from Jamaica, when it is well known that the East
India Company can supply the whole demand of this kingdom from
Mocha? If it be answered that the Jamaica coffee comes cheaper, and
is the growth of our own plantations, I reply, that these spices
will not only be cheaper, but better, and be purchased by our own
manufacturers; and these, I think, are the strongest reasons that
can be given.
If it be demanded what certainty I have that spices can be had from
thence, I answer, all the certainty that in a thing of this nature
can be reasonably expected: Ferdinand de Quiros met with all sorts
of spices in the country he discovered; William Schovten, and
Jacques le Maire, saw ginger and nutmegs; so did Dampier; and the
author of Commodore Roggewein's Voyage asserts, that the free
burgesses of Amboyna purchase nutmegs from the natives of New Guinea
for bits of iron. All, therefore, I contend for, is that these bits
of iron may be sent them from Old England.
The reason I recommend settling on the south coast of Terra
Australis, if this design should be prosecuted, from Juan Fernandez,
rather than the island of New Britain, which I mentioned before, is,
because that coast is nearer, and is situated in a better and
pleasanter climate. Besides all which advantages, as it was never
hitherto visited by the Dutch, they cannot, with any colour of
justice, take umbrage at our attempting such a settlement. To close
then this subject, the importance of which alone inclined me to
spend so much of mine and the reader's time about it:
It is most evident, that, if such a settlement was made at Juan
Fernandez, proper magazines erected, and a constant correspondence
established between that island and the Terra Australis, these three
consequences must absolutely follow from thence:
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