Page:Early voyages to Terra Australis.djvu/126

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xcviii
INTRODUCTION.

bight here drawn, instead of the strait, throws it out of the line of exploration in the voyage whose track is described. From the notes of the Burgomaster Witsen (1705), we derive the only fragment of an account of this most important voyage. From thence we gain the earliest information respecting the inhabitants. The translation is given by Dalrymple, in his volume on Papua. It is as follows: "In latitude 13 degrees, 8 minutes south, longitude 146 degrees, 18 minutes (probably about 129+12 degrees east of Greenwich), the coast is barren. The people are bad and wicked, shooting at the Dutch with arrows, without provocation, when they were coming on shore. It is here very populous."

"In 14 degrees, 58 minutes south, longitude 138 degrees, 59 minutes (about 125 degrees east) the people are savage, and go naked: none can understand them. In 16 degrees, 10 minutes south, the people swam on board of a Dutch ship, and when they received a present of a piece of linen, they laid it upon their head in token of gratitude. Every where thereabout all the people are malicious. They use arrows and bows, of such a length that one end rests on the ground when shooting. They have also hazegayes and kalawayes, and attacked the Dutch, but did not know the execution of the guns.

"In Hollandia Nova [a term which seems to imply that the previously named plans were not supposed by Witsen to be included under the name of New Holland] in 17 degrees, 12 minutes south (longitude 121 degrees or 122 degrees east), Tasman found