618 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



history remains. The little information we have is derived 

 from a lengthy memorial presented thirty-five years later — that 

 is, in 1610 — to King Philip of Spain, by his dutiful subject Dr. 

 Juan Luis Arias, who earnestly beseeches His Catholic Ma- 

 jesty to anticipate the English and Dutch by taking possession 

 of the newly-discovered islands in the Pacific-, and thus prevent 

 the natives from becoming infected with the venomous heresy 

 of those two nations. Possibly this slender and unsubstantial 

 reference relates to New Zealand, and, if so, it is perhaps the 

 first of which there is record. As it is evidently founded on 

 a knowledge of Fernandez' voyage thirty-five years before, it is 

 not unlikely that here is an example of unpublished manuscript 

 for research to unearth. (Vide Dalrymple's Voyages, vol. i., 

 p. 53; Burney's Voyages, vol. i., p. 300; and Hakluyt So- 

 ciety — Major's "Early Voyages," p. 1.) 



One other reference to unverified utterance I think it 

 well to repeat, as it seems to have value. On p. 65, 

 vol. hi., of the Proceedings of our Institute, is a paragraph, 

 vague enough, wherein it is stated that the Arabian geo- 

 graphers of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were 

 acquainted with a large and mountainous country in the 

 farthest southern ocean, uninhabited by man, and con- 

 taining gigantic birds known as the " Seemoah." The 

 paragraph does not state by whom, in this uninhabited land, 

 these gigantic birds were called " Seemoah," but it proceeds 

 to say that translations of these old Arabian geographers 

 are to be found in the fine libraries of Paris and Vienna. 

 I firmly believe that scientific, ardent, and well-endowed re- 

 search applied to "Terra Australis Incognita," using that term 

 in a different sense from that in which it was used during the 

 last century, must result in discoveries of the first importance 

 to ethnology. Unsatisfactory as are these dim allusions, they 

 yet shadow forth an acquaintance with this country earlier 

 than that which we are accustomed to estimate as the earliest. 



Leaving them, however, I proceed to speak of our earliest 

 authentic literature, and for which we are indebted to the 

 Dutch. So early as the close of the sixteenth century this 

 nation entered the lists as a competitor with the Spanish and 

 Portuguese in the East India trade. Several trading com- 

 panies were formed, but the rivalry between them became so 

 keen and so destructive of fair profits that the Government of 

 the United Dutch Provinces — of which Zealand was one — 

 stepped in and cured matters by granting in 1602 a charter for 

 the formation of the afterwards celebrated Dutch East India 

 Company. The Island of Java was selected as the suitable 

 centre of trade, and upon it, in 1610, was founded the City of 

 Batavia, the capital. It was so named after the Batavi, who 

 in the time of Caesar were the ancient inhabitants of Holland. 



