INTRODUCTORY - OBSERVATIONS*.

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Thefe iflands are well peopled; for fome time ago, they counted feventy differenttowns or habitations. Their principal produce is fago, and the Haves they make inNew Guinea and elfewhere, which they bring to fell in Banda *. There is found,near the village of Ablinga, a bank on which they fifh for pearl, but they are fmall.The bird of paradife is alfo found in thofe iflands. In the year 1703 there were about240 Chriftians in Aroua.

Thus far our Dutch geographer, whofe informations, though of no great value,V'e have inferted, that we might not be accufed of omitting any thing that may tendto the improvement of navigation, and the geography of thefe countries. The reftof his piece contains nothing but a dry catalogue of the names impofed by the Dutch navigators on the different capes, mountains, and iflands; but this becomes of fmallufe, as the Dutch writer, by a ftrange negleft, has omitted the latitude and longitudeof the places he names; fo that this catalogue can be of very fmall if any ufe to thenavigator. We return now to our original plan, of giving the feveral voyages madetowards the fouthern regions, in the order of time in which they were performed ;and as our feamen began now to be more exa£t in their obfervations, our readers willperufe with t\ore pleafure, and greater profit, the hiftory of their voyages. To thefeWe fhall join fuch remarks, as the importance of the fubjects, or credit of the relatersniay call for; and thus we hope to render this collection more worthy of the regard°f the public, as well as more ufeful (which is our great aim) to the judiciousfeamen.

* Here we have another inftance of the conformity of manners betwixt the Negroes of Africa andthofe of New Guinea , as well as in their equally wanting two of their fore-teeth. It would feem, how*^er, that this race of men is very ancient in the fouthern hemifphere.

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VOYAGE