284 A. D. i6i6. 



' be purfued, and good ftore of oil may be made between the middle of 

 ' July and the laft day of Auguft.' 



Nor were the Hollanders at all behind us in new enterprizes ; for this 

 fame year William Cornelitz Schouten and James Le Maire, performed 

 the third Dutch circumnavigation of the globe. Such as were not of 

 their Eaft-India company being prohibited to go to India either by the 

 Cape of Good Hope eaftward, or weftward through the flraits of Magellan, 

 fome now began to think there might be another paflage thither weft- 

 ward, fomewhere fouth of thofe ftraits. This was firft ftartcd by Le Maire, 

 a merchant of Amfterdam, joined by William Cornehtz Schouten, a 

 merchant of Hoorne. In the year 1615 they fitted out two fiiips, one 

 of which was loft by fire at Port Defire, under the command of the lat- 

 ter. Schouten, who pafling on fouth from the Magellanic ftraits, found 

 a new and fafer ftrait, which he named after his partner Le Maire, 

 through which he failed into the South fea, and having failed almoft in- 

 to the 60th degree of fouth latitude, he got round the Cape, which he 

 named after his town of Hoorne, on the ifle named Terra del Fuego, 

 lying in 57 degrees 48 minutes ; thence crofting the great Southern 

 ocean, he came to Jacatra, (fince named Batavia,) where, nctwith- 

 ftanding this new and great difcovery, the ftiip and goods were feized 

 by the prefident of the Dutch Eaft-India company, in the year 1516. 

 Schouten and his men took their pafi"age home in one of that company's 

 Ihips, having performed their whole circumnavigation in two years and 

 eighteen days. 



The Dutch found a fliorter pafiage to India in the year 1623, by the 

 ftraits of Naffau, north-weft of Le Maire's ftrait; and another ftill fliort- 

 er by Brower's ftraits in 1643. But fince the powers of Europe have 

 made treaties about the Eaft-India commerce, that fouth-weft paftage is 

 feldom ufed, unlefs for illicit commerce with the Spanifli territories in 

 the South fea, or by powers at war with Spain. 



Very early in the feventeenth century, the Algerines, and by their 

 example thofe of Tunis and Tripoli, began to ufe fquare-rigged ftiips, 

 and to drop galleys and galliots, [Morgafi's Hijl. of Algiers, V. ii, p. 628.] 

 According to a letter of Sir Francis Cottington, the Englifli minifter in 

 Spain, to the duke of Buckingham, the fleet of thofe corfairs now con- 

 fifted of forty fail of tall fliips, their admiral being of 500 tons burden, 

 with which they ftruck terror all along the Spanilh coafts, dividing their 

 force into two fquadrons, with one of which they blocked up the port 

 of Malaga, and with the other they cruifed between Liihon and Seville. 

 Confidering the mean ftate of the naval ftrength of the chriftian powers 

 of Europe in thole times, this was truely a formidable fleet : but thofe 

 rovers are fcarcely able in our days to fend out fuch a fleet ; and, on 

 the other hand, the chriftian powers' are fince become much more 

 powerful at fea. j 



