Book L 
130 the V O Y 
'■ Schovten Thefe People, it feems, treated him very ill ; 
upon vffiich James leMaire brought his Shipclofe to the 
Shore, and fired a Broadfide through the Woods. TheBullets, 
flying through the Trees, ft ruck the Negroes with fuch a 
Panic, that they fled in an inftant up into the Country ; and 
durft not Ihew their Heads again, till they had made full 
Satisfaction for what was paft, and thereby fecured their 
Safety for the Time to come ; and he traded with them 
afterwards very peaceably, and with mutual Satisfaction. 
This Account of our Author’s feems to have been taken 
upon Memory, and is not very exadt. Schovten' s Seamen, 
or rather the Petty Officer who commanded his Long-boat, 
infulted the Natives grofly, before they offered any Injury 
to his People ; and then, notwithftanding they fired upon 
them with Small-arms, the Iflanders obliged them to re- 
treat ; fo that they were forced to bring the great Guns to 
bear upon the Ifland before they could reduce them. Thefe 
People do not deferve to be treated as Savages, becaufe 
Schovten acknowledges, that they had been engaged in Com- 
merce with the Spaniards *, as appeared by their having 
iron Pots, glafs Beads, and Pendants, with other European 
Commodities, before he came thither. He alfo tells us, 
that they were a very civilized People, their Country well 
cultivated, and very fruitful ; that they had a great many 
Boats, and other Small-craft, which they navigated with 
great Dexterity. He adds alfo, that they gave him a 
very diftindt Account of the neighbouring I Hands, and 
that they folicited him to fire upon the Arimoans , with 
whom it feems they are always at W^r; which, however, 
he refufed to do, unlefs provoked to it by fome Injury 
offered by thofe People. It is therefore very apparent, 
that the Inhabitants of Moa are a People with whom any 
Europeans , fettled in their Neighbourhood, might without 
any Difficulty fettle a Commerce, and receive confiderable 
Affiftance from them in making Difcoveries. But, per- 
haps, fome Nations are fitter for thefe kind of Expeditions 
than others, as being lefs apt to make ufe of their Artil- 
lery and Small-arms upon every little Difpute ; for as the 
Inhabitants of Moa are well enough acquainted with the 
Superiority which the Europeans have over them, it can- 
not be fuppofed, that they will ever hazard their total De- 
ftrudtion by committing any grofs Act of Cruelty upon 
Strangers, who vifit their Coaft ; and it is certainly very 
unfair, to treat People as Savages and Barbarians, merely 
for defending themfelves when infulted or attacked without 
Caufe. The Inftance Captain Dafman gives us of their 
delivering up the Man who wounded his Sailor, is a plain 
Proof of this ; and, as to the Diffidence and Sufpicion 
which fome later Voyagers have complained of, with refpedt 
to, the Inhabitants of this Ifland, they muft certainly be 
the Effects of the bad Behaviour of fuch Europeans as this 
Nation have hitherto dealt with ; and would be effectually 
removed, if ever they had a fettled Experience of a con- 
trary ConduCt. The fureft Method of teaching People 
to behave honeftly towards us, is to behave friendly and 
honeftly towards them ; and then there is no great Reafon 
to fear, that fuch as give evident Proofs of Capacity and 
Civility in the common Affairs of Life, fhould be guilty 
of Treachery that muft turn to their own Difadvantage. 
18. On the 1 2th of May , being then in the Latitude of 
54/.South, and in the Longitude of 153 0 17', we found 
the Variation 6° 30' to theEaft. We continued coafting 
the North-fide of the Ifland of William Schovten , which is 
about eighteen or nineteen Miles long, very populous, and 
the People very brifk and aCtive. It was with great Cau- 
tion that Schovten gave his Name to this Ifland ; for, having 
obferved that there were abundance of fmall Iflands laid 
down in the Charts on the Coaft of New Guiney , he was 
fufpicious, that this might be of the Number. But, fince 
that Time, it feems a Point generally agreed, that this 
Ifland had not before any particular Name; and therefore, 
in all fubfequent Voyages, we find it conftantly mentioned 
by the Name of Schovten s Ifland. 
He defcribes it as a very fertile and well-peopled Ifland : 
The Inhabitants of which were fo far from difcovering any 
thing of a favage Nature, that they gave apparent Tefti- 
monies of their having had an extenfive Commerce before 
he touched there, fince they not only ffiewed him various 
Commodities from the Spaniards , but alfo feveral Samples 
AGES of 
or China W are : He obferves, that they were very unlike 
the Nations he had feen before, being rather of an Olive- 
colour, than black ; fome having ffiort, others long Hair, 
dreffed after different Faffiions : They were alfo a taller, 
ftronger, and ftouter People, than their Neighbours. Thefe 
little Circumftances, which may feem tedious or trifling 
to fuch as read only for Amuiement, are, however, of 
very great Importance to fuch as have Difcoveries in View; 
becaufe they argue, that thefe People have a general Cor-' 
refpondence : The Difference of their Complexion muft 
arife from a mixed Defcent ; and the different Manner of 
weaiing their Hair is undoubtedly owing to their follow- 
ing the Faffiion of different Nations, as their Fancies lead 
them. He farther obferves, that their Veffels were larger, 
and better contrived, than their Neighbours ; that they 
readily parted with their Bows and Arrows in Exchange for 
Goods, and that they were particularly fond of Glafs and 
Iron-ware, which, perhaps, they not only ufed themfelves, 
but employed likewife in their Commerce. The moft 
Weftern Point of the Ifland he called the Cape of Good 
Hope, becaufe, by doubling that Cape, he expedted to 
reach the Ifland of Banda : And, that we may not wonder, 
that he was in Doubts and Difficulties as to the Situation 
of thele Places, we ought to refled, that Schovten was 
the firft who failed round the World by this Courfe, and 
the laft too, except Commodore Roggewein ; other Na- 
vigators duffing rather to run as high as California , and 
from thence to the Ladrone Iflands, merely becaufe it is the 
ordinary Route. 
In the Neighbourhood of this Ifland Schovten alfo met 
with an Earthquake, which alarmed the Ship’s Company 
exceffively, from an Apprehenfion, that they had ftruck 
upon a Rock. There are fome other Hands in the Neigh- 
bourhood of this, well peopled, and well planted, abound- 
ing with excellent Fruits, efpecially of the Melon Kind. 
Thefe Elands lie, as it were, on the Confines of the Southern 
Continent, and the Eajl Indies ; fo that their Inhabitants 
enjoy all the Advantages refulting from their own happy 
Climate, and from their Traffick with their Neighbours, 
efpecially with thofe of T ernate and Amhoyna ; who come 
thither yearly to purchafe their Commodities, and who are 
likewife vifited, at certain Seafons, by the People of thefe 
Elands in their Turn. 
19. On the 1 8th of May , in the Latitude of 2 6 ' South, 
and in the Longitude of 1-47° 55', we obferved the Va- 
riation to be 5 0 30' Eaft. We were now arrived at the 
Weftern Extremity of New Guiney , which is a detached 
Point, or Promontory (though it is not marked fo even 
in the lateft Maps). Here we met with Calms, variable 
and contrary Winds, with much Rain : From thence we 
fleered for Ceram , leaving the Cape on the North, and 
arrived fafely on that Ifland : By this time Captain Tafman 
had fairly furrounded the Continent he was inftrudted to 
difcover ; and had therefore nothing now farther in View 
than to return to Batavia , in order to report the Difco- 
veries he had made. 
On the 2 7th of May , We paffed through the S freights 
of Boura , or Bouton , and continued our Paffage to Ba- 
tavia ; where we arrived on the 1 5th of June , in the La- 
titude of 6° 1 2 7 South, and in the Longitude of 127 0 i8 7 . 
This Voyage was made in the Space of ten Months. Such 
was the End of this Expedition, which has been always con- 
fidered as the cleareft, and moft exadt, that was ever 
made, for the Difcovery of the I err a Auflralis Incognita ; 
from whence that Chart or Map was laid down in the 
Pavement of the Stadt-houfe at Amfierdam , as is before- 
mentioned. We have now nothing to do, but to fhut up 
this Voyage, and our Hiftory of Circum-navigators, with 
a few Remarks ; previous to which, it will be requifite to 
ftate clearly and fuccindtly the Difcoveries, either made or 
confirmed by Captain Dafman’s Voyage, that the Im- 
portance of it may fully appear, as well as the Probability 
of our Conjedtures, with regard to the Motives that in- 
duced the Dutch Eajl India Company to be at fo much 
Pains about thefe Difcoveries. 
20. In the firft place, then, it is moft evident, from 
Captain 'Tafman’s Voyage, that New Guiney , Carpentaria , 
New Holland , Antony van Diemen s Land , and the Coun- 
tries difcovered by de Duiros, make all one Continent, 
from 
