VOYAGE OF THE " PERA " AND " AERNEM " 31 



a smile on the faces of those who have come to know what was the 

 actual condition of affairs. In other parts, the language employed 

 is intentionally and diplomatically ambiguous. A notable instance 

 is the instruction regarding the CAPTURE OF SLAVES. The word 

 " behendlicheyt " meaning literally " handihood," might be 

 rendered as dexterity, adroitness, ingenuity, strategy, smartness, 

 trickery or treachery, and the addition of " or otherwise " left no 

 room for delicate scruples. The sailors made no mistake in inter- 

 preting their orders to mean that they were to capture slaves, with 

 a minimum of friction, if possible, but in any case to capture them 

 somehow. It is not so written, but it is easy to understand that 

 the voyagers were expected, by the capture of " adults, or, still 

 better, young lads or girls," to do something substantial towards 

 recouping the expenses of the expedition. Ample evidence will 

 be found in the log of the " Pera" which carried out the instruc- 

 tions originally drawn up for the " Harengh " and " Hasewint" 

 that this was the true meaning of the instructions. One hundred 

 and thirty-three years later, the Dutch ship " Rijder " was carrying 

 on the same tactics as were employed by the " Pera" and on the 

 same western shore of the Cape York Peninsula. Even while the 

 " Pera " was at sea, Torres was at work on the same lines, for his 

 Spanish masters, on the southern shores of New Guinea ; only he 

 was more successful, as he records with satisfaction that in the 

 course of the voyage he had captured twenty persons. 



Early in the seventeenth century, the idea that there was anything 

 reprehensible in slavery had barely suggested itself to the European 

 mind, and I desire to point out that the Dutch were neither better 

 nor worse than their contemporaries. If their proceedings appear 

 simply abominable to readers in the twentieth century, there can 

 be no doubt that those of their contemporary rivals were dictated by 

 the same principles and carried out by the same methods. 



At the present day we are confronted by the spectacle of savage 

 populations dying out wherever they come in contact with com- 

 paratively civilised men. Belated Christianity, benevolence, 

 philanthropy, charity or fair dealing seem alike powerless to arrest 

 the working of what appears to be a natural law. In these circum- 

 stances, it is open to argument that for savage races a probationary 

 period of SERVITUDE is preferable to its only alternative, EXTINCTION. 



