On the 12th of May, being then in the latitude
of 54 minutes south, and in the longitude of 153 degrees 17 minutes, we found
the variation 6 degrees 30 minutes to the east. We continued coasting the north
side of the island of William Schovten, which is about eighteen or nineteen
miles long, very populous, and the people very brisk and active. It was with
great caution that Schovten gave his name to this island, for having observed
that there were abundance of small islands laid down in the charts on the coast
of New Guinea, he was suspicious that this might be of the number. But since
that time it seems a point generally agreed, that this island had not before any
particular name; and therefore, in all subsequent voyages, we find it constantly
mentioned by the name of Schovten’s Island.
He describes it as a very fertile and well-peopled island; the inhabitants of
which were so far from discovering anything of a savage nature, that they gave
apparent testimonies of their having had an extensive commerce before he touched
there, since they not only showed him various commodities from the Spaniards,
but also several samples of China ware; he observes that they are very unlike
the nations he had seen before, being rather of an olive color than black; some
having short, others long hair, dressed after different fashions; they were also
a taller, stronger, and stouter people than their neighbors. These little
circumstances, which may seem tedious or trifling to such as read only for
amusement, are, however, of very great importance to such as have discoveries in
view; because they argue that these people have a general correspondence; the
difference of their complexion must arise from a mixed descent; and the
different manner of wearing their hair is undoubtedly owing to their following
the fashion of different nations, as their fancies lead them. He farther
observes that their vessels were larger and better contrived than their
neighbors; that they readily parted with their bows and arrows in exchange for
goods, and that they were particularly fond of glass and ironware, which,
perhaps, they not only used themselves, but employed likewise in their commerce.
The most western point of the island he called the Cape of Good Hope, because by
doubling that cape he expected to reach the island of Banda; and that we may not
wonder that he was in doubts and difficulties as to the situation on of these
places, we ought to reflect that Schovten was the first who sailed round the
world by this course, and the last too, except Commodore Roggewein, other
navigators choosing rather to run as high as California, and from thence to the
Ladrone Islands, merely because it is the ordinary route.
In the neighborhood of this island Schovten also met with an earthquake, which
alarmed the ship’s company excessively, from an apprehension that they had
struck upon a rock. There are some other islands in the neighborhood of this,
well peopled, and well planted, abounding with excellent fruits, especially of
the melon kind. These islands lie, as it were, on the confines of the southern
continent, and the East Indies, so that the inhabitants enjoy all the advantages
resulting from their own happy climate, and from their traffic with their
neighbors, especially with those of Ternate and Amboyna, who come thither yearly
to purchase their commodities, and who are likewise visited at certain seasons
by the people of these islands in their turn.
Early Australian Voyages, 1886, John Pinkerton |
