present century. Thirdly, by this survey, these countries are for ever
marked out, so long as the map or memory of this voyage, shall remain.
The Dutch East India Company have it always in their power to direct
settlements, or new discoveries, either in New Guinea, from the Moluccas,
or in New Holland, from Batavia directly. The prudence shown in the
conduct of this affair deserves the highest praise. To have attempted
heretofore, or even now, the establishing colonies in those countries,
would be impolitic, because it would be grasping more than the East India
Company, or than even the republic of Holland, could manage; for, in the
first place, to reduce a continent between three and four thousand miles
broad is a prodigious undertaking, and to settle it by degrees would be
to open to all the world the importance of that country which, for
anything we can tell, may be much superior to any country yet known: the
only choice, therefore, that the Dutch had left, was to reserve this
mighty discovery till the season arrived, in which they should be either
obliged by necessity or invited by occasion to make use of it; but though
this country be reserved, it is no longer either unknown or neglected by
the Dutch, which is a point of very great consequence. To the other
nations of Europe, the southern continent is a chimera, a thing in the
clouds, or at least a country about which there are a thousand doubts and
suspicions, so that to talk of discovering or settling it must be
regarded as an idle and empty project: but, with respect to them, it is a
thing perfectly well known; its extent, its boundaries, its situation,
the genius of its several nations, and the commodities of which they are
possessed, are absolutely within their cognisance, so that they are at
liberty to take such measures as appear to them best, for securing the
eventual possession of this country, whenever they think fit. This
account explains at once all the mysteries which the best writers upon
this subject have found in the Dutch proceedings. It shows why they have
been at so much pains to obtain a clear and distinct survey of these