prosecuted the first maxim has been very
largely shown in a foregoing article, wherein we have an ample
description of the mighty empire in the hands of their East India
Company. As for the second maxim, the reader, in the perusal of
Funnel's, Dampier's, and other voyages, but especially the first, must be
satisfied that it is what they have constantly at heart, and which, at
all events, they are determined to pursue, at least with regard to
strangers; and as to their own countrymen, the usage they gave to James
le Maire and his people is a proof that cannot be contested.

Those things being considered, it is very plain that the Dutch, or rather
the Dutch East India Company, are fully persuaded that they have already
as munch or more territory in the East Indies than they can well manage,
and therefore they neither do nor ever will think of settling New Guinea,
Carpentaria, New Holland, or any of the adjacent islands, till either
their trade declines in the East Indies, or they are obliged to exert
themselves on this side to prevent other nations from reaping the
benefits that might accrue to them by their planting those countries. But
this is not all; for as the Dutch have no thoughts of settling these
countries themselves, they have taken all imaginable pains to prevent any
relations from being published which might invite or encourage any other
nation to make attempts this way; and I am thoroughly persuaded that this
very account of Captain Pelsart's shipwreck would never have come into
the world if it had not been thought it would contribute to this end, or,
in other words, would serve to frighten other nations from approaching
such an inhospitable coast, everywhere beset with rocks absolutely void
of water, and inhabited by a race of savages more barbarous, and, at the
same time, more miserable than any other creatures in the world.

The author of this voyage remarks, for the use of seamen, that in the
little island occupied by Weybhays, after digging two pits, they were for
a considerable time afraid to use the water, having found that these pits
ebbed and flowed with the sea; but necessity at last constraining them to
drink it, they found it did them no hurt. The reason of the ebbing and
flowing of these pits was their nearness to the sea, the water of which
percolated through the sand, lost its saltness, and so became potable,
though it followed the motions of the ocean whence it came.

THE VOYAGE OF C