PLANS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 339 



It was reasonable enough to guess that, within its vast 

 limits, would be found " one of the best countries in the 

 world," a country able to produce grain, silk, tobacco, 

 wine, and oil. A colony founded here would be of the 

 greatest service, as a place of refreshment for the Company's 

 ships, and as a source of supply to all the Company's 

 settlements in the Indies. It could be easily formed by 

 labourers from Java, who would appreciate the change 

 of climate, or by slaves. Five hundred or six hundred 

 picked soldiers should be sent to reconnoitre ; for it was 

 possible that the natives were giants, and that they 

 possessed forts and " machines of war better than our 

 bombs and cannons." 



And there was need of haste. If the Dutch did not Fear of 

 grasp the opportunity of using a land which contained p^ench and 

 " perhaps more riches than any other part of the world," colonies, 

 the British or the French would certainly do so. Would 

 Hollanders be content to abandon " New Holland " to 

 strangers ? The British were especially to be dreaded. 

 " One must confess there is no people in all the universe 

 so alive, so active, so enterprising." For they are colonists 

 as well as merchants ; " they themselves go to live in 

 a good land." And, if ever British or French made a 

 settlement in Nuytsland, and formed there a basis for 

 warfare, with difficulty would the Dutch be able to main- 

 tain their position in the East Indies. ' 



Purry argued with eloquence and with truth ; but he The Corn- 

 did not convince. Colonisation and fortification, he ]^ ny says 

 admitted, cost much money. The Company, he said, 

 could get the money back by taking one-fifth of the wine, 

 oil, grain, and fruit produced. But the Company did 

 not believe him. It preferred to take the chance of a 

 British or French settlement. 



In 1721 there was a Dutch voyage that is interesting Roggeveen 

 not from what it did but from what it suggested. The !f e ^ s , 



Quiros s 



voyage of Roggeveen * looks back to the earlier Spanish continent, 



1721. 



1 " Two, if not three accounts of Roggeveen's expedition were 

 published soon after his return to Europe, from the pens of persons 



