As To The Product And Commodities Of This Country In General, There
Is The Greatest Reason In The World To
Believe that they are
extremely rich and valuable, because the richest and finest
countries in the known world lie all
Of them within the same
latitude; but to return from conjectures to facts, the country
discovered by De Quiros makes a part of this great island, and is
the opposite coast to that of Carpentaria. This country, the
discoverer called La Australia del Espiritu Santo, in the latitude
of 15 degrees 40 minutes south, and, as he reports, it abounds with
gold, silver, pearl, nutmegs, mace, ginger, and sugar-canes, of an
extraordinary size. I do not wonder that formerly the fact might be
doubted, but at present I think there is sufficient reason to induce
us to believe it, for Captain Dampier describes the country about
Cape St. George and Port Mountague, which are within 9 degrees of
the country described by De Quiros. I say Captain Dampier describes
what he saw in the following words: "The country hereabouts is
mountainous and woody, full of rich valleys and pleasant fresh-water
brooks; the mould in the valleys is deep and yellowish, that on the
sides of the hills of a very brown colour, and not very deep, but
rocky underneath, yet excellent planting land; the trees in general
are neither very straight, thick, nor tall, yet appear green and
pleasant enough; some of them bear flowers, some berries, and others
big fruits, but all unknown to any of us; cocoa-nut trees thrive
very well here, as well on the bays by the sea-side, as more remote
among the plantations; the nuts are of an indifferent size, the milk
and kernel very thick and pleasant; here are ginger, yams, and other
very good roots for the pot, that our men saw and tasted; what other
fruits or roots the country affords I know not; here are hogs and
dogs, other land animals we saw none; the fowls we saw and knew were
pigeons, parrots, cocadores, and crows, like those in England; a
sort of birds about the bigness of a blackbird, and smaller birds
many.
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