THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 



1615 



[August] The 18. and 19. we lay by the wind, resoluing to hold our course for 

 Sierra Liona . . . and were forced to lie by the weather, it being then too late 

 to go speedily vnder the Line .... 



[October] The 19. and 20. about noone we past the equinoctiall line, and had 

 a south east and a south southeast winde vntill the 24. 



( Willem Comelisz Scheuten. The relation of a wonderf all voiage. London, 

 1619. p. 5 and 13.) 



Thirty-two years before this crossing another Netherlander saw the sun shift in the heaven, 

 and set down then his tale of how the ships "of an ancient custome, do chuse an Emperour . . . 

 and to hold a great feast, which conünueth three or foure days together." 



Linschoten's sounds of revelry are not rivaled by Schonten of Hoom on this voyage when 

 he discovered and named Cape Horn. We know too little about Schouten to dare venture 

 a guess whether he cared too much for safety of his ship to waste a few moments in sailors' 

 frivohties, or was genial enough to let the crew have its horseplay, navigator enough to log 

 only the essentials and to pass over any mention of trivials. We do find notes of four other 

 crossings by him, all told in as matter of fact fashion as the first, though with the 5th, on 24 

 April 1617 we get a trifle more of tlie human interest: "The 24. in the morning, wee were the 

 fift time vnder the Equinoctiall Hne, and the 28. we saw tlie north starre, which wee had 

 not seene in 20. monthes before" (p. 82). 



The Dutch original "lovmael ofte beschryvinghe van de wonderlijcke reyse ghedaen door 

 Willem Comelisz Schouten van Hoom; inde jaren 1615, 1616, en 1617," came out at Amsterdam 

 in 1618. The interest in it and the recognition of its meaning to navigation are shown by the 

 speed of the translations: "Novi freti, a parte meridionali freti Magellanici," Amsterdam, 1619; 

 "Diarium vel descriptio . . . Jtineris," Amsterdam, 1619; "Journal, ou description du merveilleux 

 voyage," Amstredam (sic), 1618; "lovmal, ov relation exacte dv voyage," Paris, 1618; and the 

 London issue in 1619. 



1642 



On the 16th of August, 1642, we sailed from Stockliohn, in the Lord's name, 

 for America, on board the ship Fame, and on the 17th, we arrived at Dahle- 

 hamn. On the 3d of September, we left that place, and on the 6th, arrived 

 at Copenhagen. On the 8th, we landed at Helsingör, and on the 12th, at 

 Gottenburg. On the 1st of November, at noon, we left Gottenburg Castle; 

 and on the 14th, at about four o'clock in the morning, we were in the 

 Spanish Sea. On the 21st, about mid-day, we sailed along the coast of 

 Portugal, where the crew performed the ceremony of tropical baptism. It is 

 the custom with seamen, when they cross the equinoctial Hne, to dip in the 

 water those who have never crossed it before. One may be exempted from 

 that ceremony, by giving a Httle money to the sailors, and in that case they 

 receive only a little sprinkling. 



( A short description of the Province of New Sweden ... By Thomas Cam- 

 panius Hohn. . . . Translated ... by Peter S. Du Ponceau. Memoirs of the 

 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, v. 3, p. 70. Philadelphia, 1834. ) 



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