taller, stronger, and stouter people than their neighbours. 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 neighbours; 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 neighbourhood 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
neighbourhood 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 neighbours, especially
with those of Ternate and Amboyna, who come thither yearly to purchase