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INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.

Dutch make a great myftery of whatever concerns this navigation. And why Ihouldthey be fo careful in concealing it, did the country produce nothing worth the troubleof making fo long a voyage ? We alfo know, that they once fent troops to form afettlement hdre ; but they found a ftout refiftance from the natives, who, ill armed asthey were, refifted the Dutch with great vigour, advancing into the water to hindertheir landing. On their return, they reported that they found the favages to be eightfeet high. Peifart fays nothing of their extraordinary fize, and perhaps the Dutch ,being heartily frightened, thought the favages much taller than they really were.”Unluckily Thevenot did not fulfil his promife with regard to Carpentaria, which is alarge country, and lies in the ordinary trad of navigation to the eaftern iflands, in la-titude io degrees fouth. Thevenot, at the time of his death, was preparing a fifthvolume of his collection, fome imperfed fheets of which were found in his ftudy, con-taining the journals of Peifart and Tafman. But there was nothing to be feen refpedingCarpenter or General Diemen (in cafe it be true that Diemen had preferved any journalof his voyage), or if ever Thevenot was poffeffed of fuch manufcripts, they are nowloft. In Ihort, we have nothing of any length on this fubjed, except the journals ofPeifart and Tafman. We, indeed, fee in the new hiftory of voyages, publilhed at Am-fterdam in 1718, a fort of memorial concerning the land difcoveredby Nuytz, tendingto prove, that as this country is fituated in the fifth climate, between 34 and 36 de-grees latitude, it mull be one of the molt temperate and fertile regions on the globe.It is added, that this memorial Was thought to have been drawn up by order of thecelebrated Law, to infpire the French with a tafte for new difcoveries. The conclufiondrawn from the fituation of this country is certainly juft ; nor can we fee anyreafon,for the fufpicion of fome who have thought that this region has only of late been leftbare by the ocean, fince it was firft feen by Nuytz in 1627.

New Holland is that vaft region which extends from the 6th to the 34th degree offouth latitude, and from longitude 124 degrees to 187. To the north it has the Mo-lucca iflands, or the fea of Lanchidol. To the weft and fouth the Indian ocean , andthe Pacific to the eaft ; but, in this immenfe ftretch of land, we are acquainted onlywith fome parts of the coaft lying feparate from each other, without being able toaffirm whether they compofe one continent, or (as it is more likely) whether they are largeiflands feparated from each other by canals or arms of the fea, the narroweft of whichhave been fuppofed by navigators to be the mouths of rivers. Neither are we yetallured, whether or no New Holland joins New Guinea on the north, or Diemen ’s Landon the fouth. Tafman has verified by his courfe, that New Zealand , lying to the fouth-eaft, is totally feparated by the fea from the continents and iflands that lie nearer theequator. The principal countries of New Holland that we are yet acquainted with areCarpentaria to the north-eaft, the coaft of which, forming a great bay, faces to theweft. At the entry of this bay are the Molucca iflands; to the north lie the lands ofArnheim and Diemen, which lalt is different from the Diemen of Abel Tafman. Tothe north-weft lies the land of De With. Towards the weft lie Endracht or Concordia,Edels, and Lewin’s Land. This laft occupies the point on the fouth-weft. To the fouthlies the land of Peter Nuytz, and further fouth, but treading eaftwards, the land ofDiemen , if, indeed, this laft Ihould be comprehended under the divifion we are nowdefcribing.

In running along the eaft coaft of this country, back towards the equator, we findthe Terra Auftralis del Efpiritu Santo, difcovered by Quiros. But all the vaft interval,lying betwixt Lewin and Ouiros’s difcovery, is fo little known, that we cannot tell

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