PELSART’s VOYAGE TO AUSTRALASIA.

437

this propofition on the fpherical figure of the earth, from whence he thought itfelf evident, that any given point might be failed to through the great ocean, either byfleering eaft or weft. In his attempt to go to the Eaft Indies by a weft courfe, he met' w *th the iflands and continent of America ; and finding gold and other commodities,^hich till then had never been brought from the Indies, he really thought that thisthe weft coaft of that country to which the Portuguese failed by the Cape of GoodHope ; and hence came the name of the Weft Indies. Magellan, who followed hisAeps, and was the only difcoverer who reafoned fyftematically, and knew what he wasdoing, propofed to the Emperor Charles V. to complete what Columbus had begun,an d to find a paffage to the Moluccas by the weft; which, to his immortal honour, heaccomplifhed.

When the Dutch made their firft voyages to the Eaft Indies, which was not manyyears before Captain Pelfart’s Ihipwreck on the coaft of New Holland ; for their firft fleetstrived in the Eaft Indies in 1596, and Pelfart loft his fhip in 1629 ; I fay, when the*Hutch firft undertook the Eaft India trade, they had the Spice-iflands in view; and asthey are a nation juftly famous for the fteady purfuit of whatever they take in hand,

is notorious, that they never loft fight of their defign, till they had aceomplifhed it,an d made themfelves entirely matters of thefe iflands, of which they ftill continue inpofieflion. When this was done, and they had effedtually driven out the Englifh,-^’ho were likewife fettled in them, they fixed the feat of their government in the*fland of Amboyna , which lay very convenient for the difcovery of the fouthernc °untries; which, therefore, they profecuted with great diligence, from the year*619 to the time of Captain Pelfart’s Ihipwreck; that is, for the fpace of twenty,years.

But after they removed the feat of their government from Amboyna to Batavia,*they turned their views another way, and never made any voyage exprefsly for dis-coveries on that fide, except the Angle one of Captain Tafman ; of which we are to-*Peak in article X. It was from this period of time, that they began to take new-ttteafures, and having made their excellent fettlement at the Cape of Good. Hope,.re folved to govern their trade to the Eaft Indies by thefe two capital maxims:: 1, ToExtend their trade all over the Indies; and to fix themfelves fo effedually in the^cheft countries, as to keep all, or at leaft the beft and moft profitable part of theirc ommerce to themfelves. 2. To make the Moluccas , and the iflands dependent 01*^ e m, their frontier; and to omit nothing that Ihould appear neceflary to preventt , ra ^g ers j or even Dutch Ihips not belonging to the Company, from ever navigating^of e f eaSj an( j confequently from ever being acquainted with the countries that lie inj^ ern * How well they have profecuted the firft maxim, has been very largely Ihewna foregoing article, wherein we have an ample defcription of the mighty empire in'e hands of their Eaft India Company. As for the feeond maxim, the reader, in thefat^ o * of Funnel’s, Dampier’s, and other voyages, but efpecially the firft, mult be^ ls fied, that it is what they have conftantly at heart, and which, at all events,e y are determined to purfue, at leaft with regard to ftrangers; and as to their ownuntry me the u f a „ e they gave to James le Maire, and his people, is a proof thatC ®"« be contefted. _ F F

Jr a o b°fe things being conftdered, it is very plain that the Dutch, or rather the Dutch r j to ^dia Company, are fully perfuaded that they have already as much or more ter-eVe ^ t f‘ e Baft Indies than they can well manage, and therefore they neither do norr W “1 think of fettling New Guinea * Carpentaria, New Holland, or any of the

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