Part 26

“Theopompus declareth that Midas the Phrygian and Selenus were knit in familiaritie and acquaintance. This Selenus was the sonne of a nymphe inferiour to the gods in condition and degree, but superiour to men concerning mortalytie and death. These twaine mingled communication of sundrye thinges. At length, in processe of talke, Selenus tolde Midas of certaine ilandes, named Europia, Asia, and Libia, which the ocean sea circumscribeth and compasseth round about; and that without this worlde there is a continent or percell of dry lande, which in greatnesse (as hee reported) was infinite and unmeasurable; that it nourished and maintained, by the benefite of the greene medowes and pasture plots, sundrye bigge and mighty beastes; that the men which inhabite the same climats exceede the stature of us twise, and yet the length of there life is not equall to ours; that there be many and diuers great citties, manyfold orders and trades of living; that their lawes, statutes, and ordinaunces, are different, or rather clean contrary to ours. Such and lyke thinges dyd he rehearce.”

The remainder of this curious conversation, however apparently fabulous, deserves attention from the thoughtful reader.

Footnote 2:

With respect to the essay for which the learned society referred to (the Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen of Utrecht) had offered a prize, it was published in that society’s _Transactions_ in 1827, under the title of “Bennet and Van Wijck’s Verhandeling over de Nederlandsche Ontdekkingen.” The editor, who has examined this work carefully, can state that it supplies no information in addition to that which we had already possessed.

Footnote 3:

See Aratus, Phœnom., 537; Strabo, l. 7, p. 130, and l. 17; Crates apud Geminum, Elementa Astronomica, c. lxiii, in the Uranologia, p. 31.

Footnote 4:

This apparently Gallicized Portuguese name is here referred to by Dr. Martin in allusion to its occurrence on certain early French maps to be treated of hereafter.

Footnote 5:

Since the reading of this memoir at the Institute, M. Correa da Serra, to whom I had previously read it, has had the goodness to inform me of some researches which he has made upon this subject. He discovered that Don Miguel de Sylva left the kingdom of Portugal in 1542, that he only arrived in Italy in 1543 to receive the cardinal’s hat, and he thinks that he could only have reached that country by passing through France, where he had formerly studied, and that he doubtless there left the originals from which our charts were copied.

Footnote 6:

This name, from the Dutch form which it bears, might suggest the idea that the visitor was a Dutchman; but it must be remembered that the Dutch were not in those seas till the end of the sixteenth century, and that the Synod of Dort was held in the years 1618 and 1619, which renders the suggestion at the close of the paragraph as to “the images to represent their divinity” unreasonable as coming from a native of that country. It is more probable that, from the lapse of time, a mistake was made in the repetition of the name by a savage, and that a Portuguese, and not a Dutchman, suggested the use of images to represent a divinity.

Footnote 7:

For the account of this voyage see a letter from Quiros to Don Antonio de Morga, cap. vi, p. 29, of De Morga’s _Sucesos en las Islas Filipinas_, Mexico, 1609, 4to.; and Figueroa’s _Hechos de Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, quarto Marques de Cañete_, Madrid, 1613, 4to., l. 6, p. 238.

Footnote 8:

In the collective volume in the British Museum which contains the original of the present memorial, are several memorials to the king from the Fray Juan de Silva, advocating the same cause on general religious and political grounds; but the editor has been unable to find the treatise here referred to as dedicated to the Infant Don Ferdinand, nor is any mention made of it by Nicolas Antonio or Leon Pinelo, both of whom speak of the memorials addressed to the king.

Footnote 9:

Dalrymple, in quoting this passage, thinks that the word “Aislada”, here translated according to its general meaning, “encompassed with water”, in this place rather signifies “separated into islands”. This suggestion is, however, entirely arbitrary, and even in contradiction to the context, which states the supposed circuit of the island. Even in maps anterior to the voyage of Torres, as, for example, Hondius’s Mappemonde, showing Drake’s track round the world, published in the Hakluyt Society’s edition of Drake’s _World Encompassed_, New Guinea is laid down as an island, although it is true that in much later maps the point is spoken of as doubtful. Meanwhile, the editor sees no reason to deviate from the recognized rendering of the word “Aislada”.

Footnote 10:

It is from this sentence that Dalrymple observed the passage of Torres through these dangerous straits, and consequently gave to them the name of that navigator.

Footnote 11:

Printed in the original thus, “Bandalaizavas”, probably misprinted for Banda, las Zavas, or Javas.

Footnote 12:

We presume that the eccentric argument here advanced, is based upon the inference deduced by the writer at the commencement of this memorial, from the peculiar use in sacred writ of the word “Sepharat,” rendered in Latin “Bosphorus,” the especial meaning is there discussed. See page 10.

Footnote 13:

This includes the time Torres remained in the bay after the separation from Quiros.

Footnote 14:

Cape Turn-again.

Footnote 15:

The expressive epithet both of the Dutch and the Germans for their native country.

Footnote 16:

The word “laut” means south, but is erroneously spelt in the original translation “landt.” A similar blunder has been abundantly repeated on the maps of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the name of “Laut Chidol,” the Southern Sea, there spelt constantly Lantchidol.

Footnote 17:

New Zealand.

Footnote 18:

At that time the governor-general, in instructions or issuing orders, styled all the other governors, _vice-governors_.

Footnote 19:

Or 24–pounder. (Note in Dalrymple.)

Footnote 20:

Zinc.

Footnote 21:

Jurjansz signifies George’s son, as Jansz signifies John’s son; Cornelisz, Cornelius’s son, etc.

Footnote 22:

“Dwaers-inden-wegh,” signifies the island which lies across the path, _i.e._, Thwart-the-way Island.

Footnote 23:

From another extract from these MS. logbooks at the Hague, which was made at the editor’s request, there was an additional observation of importance which is here omitted. Three times Captain Jonck speaks of a southern current running along the coast, which struck his attention in these seas. Among other passages he speaks of it in these terms: “We had deviated from our course fifteen minutes to the south, and this we attributed to a southern current, which we have observed several times on this coast, which is a strange thing, the being drawn by the current in spite of the wind and the waves.” Elsewhere he estimates the force of this current at ten miles in the twenty-four hours.

Footnote 24:

In another place Witsen says this happened in 1658, and that eighty persons were so left behind, evidently from the crew of the _Waeckende Boey_, see _ante_, p. 81.

Footnote 25:

So in the Dutch. The editor has been unable to identify this plant.

Footnote 26:

Clearly a mistake. The word means Ceram.

Footnote 27:

Nicobar. The circumstance of their canoe upsetting off this island, and their books and drafts being all wetted and some of them lost, is also mentioned in the printed editions of Dampier’s voyage.

Footnote 28:

This exceedingly scarce printed narrative, which had been zealously sought for by the editor for several years, and had eluded the search of previous writers, reached his hands at the very critical moment to admit of its being translated and inserted in its proper place in the volume, the next in sequence to the present paper. Although of no great interest except as an original account of the voyage, it is important to know of what it consists, and it is the editor’s grateful duty to state that it is solely to the zeal, intelligence, and kindness of Mr. Frederick Müller, of Amsterdam, that he is indebted for the good fortune of procuring the use of the document.

Footnote 29:

Appendix I and II.

Footnote 30:

“Further: ‘1697, February 4th. Arrived here the ship _Geelvinck_, of Amsterdam: captain commandant, Wilhem van Vlaming, of Vlielandt; assistant, Jan van Bremen, of Copenhagen; first pilot, Michéel Bloem van Estight, of Bremen; the hooker the _Nyptangh_: captain Gerrit Collaert, of Amsterdam; assistant, Theodorus Heermans, of the same place; first pilot, Gerrit Gerritz, of Bremen; then the galliot _Weseltje_: commander, Cornelis van Vlaming, of Vlielandt; pilot, Coert Gerritzs, of Bremen. Sailed from here with our fleet on the 12th, to explore the south land, and afterwards bound for Batavia.’”

Footnote 31:

This word, which is perhaps misspelt, does not occur in Nemnick’s polyglot _Lexicon der Naturgeschichte_.

Footnote 32:

It has not been deemed necessary for the present purpose to reproduce these plates.

Footnote 33:

In Dr. Brown’s _Prodromus Floræ Novæ Hollandiæ et Insulæ Van Diemen_, occurs the following under the family of Goodenoviæ: “Genus Scævolæ et Diaspasi propinquum, sed ab iisdem sat distinctum, dixi in memoriam Gulielmi Dampier, navarchi et peregrinatoris celeberrimi, in variis suis itineribus naturæ semper assidui observatoris, nec botanicem negligentis, qui oram occidentalem Novæ Hollandiæ bis visitavit, cujus regionis plantæ aliquæ depictæ in relatione itineris extant, et inter ineditas secum reportatas (quarum plures nunc in Museo Oxoniensi asservantur) _Dampiera incana_ fuit.”

Footnote 34:

Trachydosaurus rugosus. Family of lizards Scincidæ.

Footnote 35:

Appendix V.

Footnote 36:

Given in the Assembly of the Seventeen, on the 7th December, 1619.

Footnote 37:

Appendix IV.

Footnote 38:

The western limit of these dangerous shoals, in long. 113° 20´ E., and the south-easternmost patch called Turtle Dove, is in lat. 29° 10´, long. 113° 57´. _Horsburgh_, London, 1838.

Footnote 39:

_Sic_ in original. The editor does not find this name in the English navy. There is, in all probability, a mistake in the transcript of the word given as Pako. The passage quoted is stated in a note to have occurred in a letter dated March 31st, 1853, addressed to Captain Wipff of the Dutch navy, then commanding the corvette _Sumatra_ off Sydney.

Footnote 40:

Appendix I and III.

Footnote 41:

Appendix II.

Footnote 42:

These papers have not been sent over.

Footnote 43:

On board of this ship, Mr. Jacob Roggeveen was a passenger, who, a few years later, became celebrated by his voyage round the world, and was afterwards made a Counsel of Justice at Batavia.

Footnote 44:

The Zeeland ship _Vaderland Getrouw_, sailed from Rammekens on the 6th of January, 1707, arrived on the 5th of May at the Cape, left Table Bay on the 31st of the same month, and came to anchor before Batavia on the 5th of August.—_U. S. Nautical Magazine and Naval Journal_, 1856, No. 4.

Footnote 45:

The inhabitants of the coast of Solor are specially mentioned as fishermen by Crawfurd, in his “Dictionary of the Indian Islands.”

Footnote 46:

This is the Island of Flores. In a “List of the principal gold mines obtained by the explorations (curiosidade) of Manoel Godinho de Heredea, Indian cosmographer, resident in Malaca for twenty years and more,” also published with the “Ordenaçōes da India,” Lisbon, 1807, the same story is told, but the Island Ende is there called Ilha do Conde.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. P. liv, changed “comparatively and light” to “comparatively light”. 2. Pp. lxxviii and 3, changed “Inleidning” to “Inleiding”. 3. P. lxxxi, changed “den Oppercoopmen Gilles Mibais van Amsterdam, den” to “den Oppercoopmen Gilles Mibais Van Luyck, Kapitein Dirk Hartog, van Amsterdam, den” to agree with English translation. 4. Silently corrected variations in spelling in the contents and index. 5. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 6. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the end of the book. 7. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.