A VOYAGE TO BORNEO.

98

manage his affairs there with far greater fuccefs, by following the inftructions I havehere laid down.

That the whole may prove to be of as great ufe as intended, is the foie aim of,

Your humble Servant,

D. Be

CHAPTER I. — Giving an Account of the Canary Cape Vend, and Ghriflmas IJJands ;

with a Defcription of Batavia, &c.

AS fo many accounts of voyages to and from the Eafl Indies have been alreadymade public, I think it fuperfluous to trouble the reader with a particular journal ofthis voyage, either going or coming ; therefore I fhall only relate fuch things as Ijudge mofl material to the prefent i'ubjeCt.

I failed out of the Downs on the 12th of October, anno 1713, in the Eagle-galley,in the fervice of the Honourable Eafl India Company, with full orders and inftru&ionsfrom them to ufe my utmofl endeavours (in concert with the other fupercargos) to re-eflablifh a trade at the port of Banjar-Mafleen in the ifland of Borneo , from whichplace the natives, fome years before, had expelled the Englifh, and deflroyed their fortand habitations, putting many of them to death, as fhall be more particularly relatedin the latter part of this work.

Several attempts of renewing a correfpondence and trade with them have been fincemade, as well by the Englifh as the Dutch , but in vain ; until fortune favoured uswith fuccefs. I doubt not but to make it fully appear, that it may be improved muchto the advantage of the Eafl India Company.

On the 29th we palled clofe by the iiles, or rather the rocks, called the Salvages*lying in the latitude of twenty-nine degrees twenty-five minutes north, and longitudeof fixteen degrees thirty-fix minutes from London . We failed along to the fouthward(the weather being exceeding pleafant for three days) in fight of mofl of the Canaryiflands, but could not as yet fee the top of Pico-TenerifFe, becaufe of its being fomuch higher than the vafl body of clouds that encompaffed it; though fometimes(when clear of clouds) it may be feen at above fifty leagues diftance at fea. On theifl of November we were between the iflands of Teneriffe and of Grand Canary .

Thefe iflands were by the ancients called Infulce Fortunatce, or the Fortunate iflands jbut by the moderns Canary iflands, from the ifle of Grand Canary , which is the chiefand largefl of them. They were well known to the Romans ; but after the fall of thatempire, they lay hid in oblivion and undifcovered by the Europeans, till about theyear 1330, or rather 1334. However the natives, a rude and ignorant people, whowere governed by their own Kings (each ifland having one), continued in poffeffion tillthe year 1417 ; when Catharine, daughter to our John of Gaunt duke of Lancafler,and widow of Henry the Third of Caflille, during the minority of her fon John theSecond, fent forces thither, and fubdued four of thofe iflands, viz. Lancerota, For-teventura, Gomera, and Ferro. The other iflands remained under their own Kingstill the year 1483, when Ferdinand, firnamed the Catholic, fubdued them all j everfince which time they remained annexed to the Crown of Spain, and are the generalrendezvous of the Spanifh Weft India fleet homeward bound.

They are fituate weftward of Biledulgerid, between twenty-four degrees thirtyminutes, and twenty-eight or twenty-nine degrees of north latitude, if we comprehend

the