TASMAN'S VOYAGE OF 1642 257 



invaluable treasures, profitable trade-connection, useful A Dutch 

 trades, excellent territories, vast powers and dominions, m 

 have the Kings of Spain and Portugal, by these dis- 

 coveries and their consequences, enriched their Kingdoms 

 and crowns ! " And what " numberless multitudes of 

 blind heathen " have thereby " been introduced to the 

 blessed light of the Christian religion ! " Yet, in spite 

 of these splendid facts, " up to this time no Christian 

 Kings, Princes, or Commonwealth have seriously endea- 

 voured to make timely discovery of the remaining unknown 

 part of the terrestrial globe, situated in the South, and 

 presumably almost as large as the Old and the New Worlds, 

 though there are good reasons to suppose that it contains 

 many excellent and fertile regions, like the gold and 

 silver-bearing provinces of Peru and Chili, which stand 

 in the same Southern Latitude, " so that it may be con- 

 fidently expected that the expense and trouble that must be 

 bestowed in the eventual discovery of so large a portion of 

 the world will be rewarded with certain fruits of material 

 profit and immortal fame." x The argument was the 

 argument of Quiros, and the thought about the salvation 

 of " numberless multitudes of blind heathen " sounds 

 strangely in the mouth of a Commercial Company whose 

 representative in Japan was complaining that profits 

 were being diminished by the false and scandalous accusa- 

 tion that the Dutch were interested ~in the progress of 

 Christianity. The Councillors came to firmer ground 

 when they claimed that the Dutch possessed great advan- 

 tages in the prosecution of the work in which the Spaniards 

 had failed. They had as permanent base of their work 

 the city of Batavia, " which is, as it were, the centre 

 of East India, both known and unknown." Backed by 

 the resources of a strong and rich Commercial Company, 

 the able Dutch skipper, with carefully chosen cargo on 

 board, and nought in his mind but pounds, shillings, 

 and pence, would have far better chance of profitable 

 discovery than Don Quixote of Spain in command of 

 a ship containing all the virtues and all the vices of 



1 Heeres' Tasman, p. 131. 

 W.A. R 



