A. D. I 6i 9. 297 



Dutch to the Englifh there, whom they would have totally deftroyed, 

 but for the interpofirion of the Japanefe. 



We have already feen, that the French had found the way to the 

 Eaft-hidies fo early as in the year 1601 , under the diredion of a com- 

 pany of merchants of St. Malo's. hi Thevenot's coUedion of voyages, 

 we find they now fent out three fliips thither : and at Acheen, in the 

 ifland of Sumatra, their admiral Beaulieu delivered to the king of that 

 place the French king's letters and prefents. Beaulieu complained of 

 obftrudhons from the Englilh.but more efpecially from the Dutch (that 

 obftrudion being quite confident with the before-recited treaty) ; and, 

 upon the whole, he feems to have made but an indifferent voyage *. 



In this fame year the voyage writers tell us, that the Dutch pofi^efTed 

 the principal ports of trade in the great ifland of Borneo : its chief pro- 

 dudions being the befl; camphire in the world, frankincenfe, caflla, 

 mufk, agaric, aloes, various gums, wax, maftic, cotton, cinnamon, pep- 

 per, honey, diamonds, gold-dufi;, bezoar-fiones, load fiones, iron, tin, bra- 

 fil-wood, &c. 



Captain Moncke, by order of the court of Denmark, now wintered 

 in the country ufually called Old Greenland, near Hudfon's bay : but, 

 out of 64 men, only himfelf and two more furvived to the next fum- 

 mer; and they, with the utmoft difficulty, brought home their (hip to 

 Denmark. Yet in that country of Greenland, properly fo called, he 

 found frefli raflDcrries under the Ihow, many trees, falmon in the rivers, 

 deer, hares, wild fowl, &c. and very good talc, of which he brought 

 home many tons : but the natives all the while would not come near 

 him. This was an attempt of the court of Denmark to re-people 

 Greenland, formerly occupied by a colony from Norway, which had 

 been unaccountably loft, hi our own days the Danes have re-colonized 

 fome fmall part of that coaft, though to very little purpofe. 



1620. — By this time the voyages by fea to the Eaft-Indies had fo 

 greatly lowered the prices of Indian merchandize, that the trade be- 

 tween India and Turkey, by the old way, viz. by the Perfian gulf and 

 up the river Tigris, and alfo by the Red fea, was much decayed,; where- 

 by the grand fignior's cuftoms were very much leiTened. The ingeni- 

 ous Mr. Munn, in the year 1621, publilhed a treatifc in favour of the 

 Eaft-India trade ; wherein he gives the quantities of Indian meichan- 

 dize confumed annually in Chriftendom, with their prime coft, and all 

 charges till onboard, by the old way from Aleppo, and alfo the new way 

 by long fea ; whence, he thhiks, will be fcen the great benefit of our 

 own Eaft-Tndia commerce, viz. 



* Befides the misfortunes brought upon him by his fecond voyage to India, and tliat the St. Malo 



the confederates, he fuffcrcd much from not know- company had a faftory at Bantam in the year 



ing the proper Rations and feafons for the trade. 1621. \_Relalions de iwyagcs par Thevenol,parlit-n, 



It appears by Beaulieu's narrative, that this was pp. 10,41, 88, 90, 128. M. 



Vol. II. p p 



