DAM PIER AND COOK 31 



a passage between New Guinea and the large " South 

 Land " (Austraha). Apparently he cruised along the 

 coast about as far as Merauke, and also touched Australia, 

 but the strait was not discovered. 



Throughout the seventeenth century the Dutch East 

 India Company maintained their monopoly of the cloves 

 and nutmegs of the Moluccas, and great consternation 

 was caused when the English tried to obtain these spices 

 direct by sending ships to the Papuan islands. The 

 Moluccas were protected by forts and their harbours 

 safe, therefore in order to prevent the English from 

 obtaining the spices outside the sphere of direct Dutch 

 influence, all trees producing spices were destroyed. 



The most important of the English vo3^ages was 

 that of Capt. William Dampier in the Roebuck. He 

 sailed by Brazil and the Cape of Good Hope to Western 

 Australia and thence to Timor. On January i, 1700, 

 he sighted the mountains of New Guinea ; he landed 

 on several islands near the coast, captured Crowned 

 pigeons and many kinds of fishes, which he described 

 in his book. Rounding the N.W. corner of the island 

 he sailed along the North coast and discovered that 

 New Britain was separated from New Guinea by a 

 strait to which he gave his own name. 



After the voyages of Philip Carteret, who proved 

 that New Ireland is an island, and of de Bougainville 

 in 1766 the most important is that of Captain James 

 Cook in the Endeavour. He sailed from Plymouth in 

 August 1768, rounded Cape Horn, reached and charted 

 New Zealand, reached the East coast of New Holland 

 (Austraha) in April 1770, and sailed along the coast to 



