LAND OF PAP U AS, ok NEW GUINEA. 207 



In i528>on the day of the Epiphany., by Don Ak'ar de Saavedra^y 

 tvho failed from a port in Mexico, by order of the great Ferdi- 

 nando Cortez, who was iaftigated to it by aa ccdefiaftic of the 

 name o^ Juan d' Arragzaga, in order to promote a farther knov/- 

 lege of th€ fpicy ifles.- He reached the Moluccas, where he 

 found f )me remains of the fleet of Magellan \ from Tidor, he 

 t-ook his departure on his return to Mexico, and fell in with the 

 FapuaniSS.^^, and the land of Papua itfelf, which he calied New 

 Guinea, on the miftaken opinion that it lay in the fame meri- 

 dian circle as the African Guinea. 



The firft remarkable place on tliis part of th-at vaft ifland is Cape of 

 the cape of Good Hope *, lying very nearly under the equator, \i 

 is to be feen at the diftance of thirty-fi-x miles, Hoping down to 

 the very water. Abundance of drift wood w^as obferved, not 

 only here, but about Nezu Britain, and all the iflands to the 

 north. 



The whole coaflr continues very lofty, and the land a vaft fuc- 

 ceflion of mountain above mountain, richly cloathed with woods. 

 The little ille of To-zvry, in Lat. 0° 15' fouth. Long. 130" 45' eaft, Isle of Yowry. 

 has behind it a fafe harbor, and on it the nutmeg tree ; farther 

 is the land of Dory, with a fmall hooked promontory of tlie fame 

 name, and^within that, in Lat. 0° 21' fouth. Long. 131° eaft, is the 

 harbor, of an appearance moft uncommonly beautiful and pic* 

 turefqvie, bounded by ranges of mountains rifing above each 

 other to amazing heights, and finely wooded. Thofe of Arfack ivfouNTAms 

 are the moft diftant from the coaft, and appear to foar above ""^ ^''^'^^*^- 



* Forreft, p. 92, and plate at p. 150. 



the 



