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Having thus ftated Wood's own words, it fhould feem, that 

 they who deny the authenticity of the relation muft contend 

 that the crews of both thefe Dutch fhips entered into a deliberate 

 fbherne of impofing upon their brother whale fifhers, and had 

 drawn up four fictitious journals accordingly, becaufe fo many 

 are ftated to have been produced out of the two fhips to Captain 

 Goulden,. whilft each of them varied a few minutes in the lati- 

 tude ; whereas, if they had determined to deceive Captain Goul- 

 den and his crew, the journals would probably have tallied ex- 

 actly. I muft beg leave alfo to make an additional obfervation om 

 the account as ftated by Wood, which is, that the Dutch fhips 

 only went to the Northward, in fearch of whales, but did not 

 give it out that they intended to make for the Pole, which if 

 they had done, it might poffibly have been an inducement to 

 carry on the deception by forgeries and mifreprefentations. To 

 this it may likewife be added, that the Dutch are not commonly 

 jokers. 



I have already remarked, that Wood makes this account one 

 of the principal reafons for his undertaking the N. E. pafTage to 

 Japan. Wood therefore (Mr. Oldenburgh's contemporary) was 

 not a difbeliever before his voyage of the poffibility of reaching 

 fo high a Northern latitude, nor of any of the circumftances . 

 ftated in this narrative* 



But Captain Wood is not a fingle inftance of fuch credulity, as,, 

 the very year before he failed on his voyage, we find in the Phi- 

 lofophical Tranfaclions for 1675 c the following pafTage : " For it 

 " is well known to all that fail Northward* that moft of the- 

 " Northern coafts are frozen up many leagues, though in the 

 " open fea it is not fo, No nor under the Pole itfflf, unlefs by ac-*- 



C -N° 11S.. 



" cident.?'' 



