On the 20th, in the latitude of 5 degrees 4
minutes south, and in the longitude 164 degrees 27 minutes, we found the
variation 8 degrees 30 minutes east. We that night drew near the Brandande
Yland, i.e., burning island, which William Schovten mentions, and we perceived a
great flame issuing, as he says, from the top of a high mountain. When we were
between that island and the continent, we saw a vast number of fires along the
shore and half-way up the mountain, from whence we concluded that the country
must be very populous. We were often detained on this coast by calms, and
frequently observed small trees, bamboos, and shrubs, which the rivers on that
coast carried into the sea; from which we inferred that this part of the country
was extremely well watered, and that the land must be very good. The next
morning we passed the burning mountain, and continued a west-north-west course
along that coast.
It is remarkable that Schovten had made the same observation with respect to the
driftwood forced by the rivers into the sea. He likewise observed that there was
so copious a discharge of fresh water, that it altered the color and the taste
of the sea. He likewise says that the burning island is extremely well peopled,
and also well cultivated. He afterwards anchored on the coast of the continent,
and endeavored to trade with the natives, who made him pay very dear for hogs
and cocoa-nuts, and likewise showed him some ginger. It appears from Captain
Tasman’s account that he was now in haste to return to Batavia, and did not give
himself so much trouble as at the beginning about discoveries, and to say the
truth, there was no great occasion, if, as I observed, his commission was no
more than to sail round the new discovered coasts, in order to lay them down
with greater certainty in the Dutch charts.
Early Australian Voyages, 1886, John Pinkerton |
