ROGGEVEEN, THE LAST OF THE GREAT VOYAGERS
The Hollanders entered the field of geographical exploration at a late
date. The Spaniards and the Portuguese had discovered and navigated
distant parts of the world for almost two centuries before the
Hollander began to leave his own shores. But when we remember that they
were a small nation and were engaged upon one of the most gigantic
wars which was ever fought, the result of their labors as pioneers of
the map was considerable. They found Spitzbergen and many new islands
in the Arctic, and gave us the first reliable information about the
impracticability of the Northeastern Passage. They discovered a new
route to the Pacific shorter and less dangerous than the Strait of
Magellan. They charted the southern part of the Pacific, and made
the first scientific inspection of the Australian continent, besides
discovering New Zealand and Tasmania. They discovered a number of new
islands in the Indian Ocean and settled upon the fertile islands of
Mauritius. Of course I now enumerate only the names of their actual
discoveries. They established settlements in North and South America
and all over Asia and in many places of Africa. They opened a small
window into the mysterious Japanese Empire, and got into relation with
the Son of Heaven who resided in Peking. They founded a very prosperous
colony in South Africa. They had colonies along the Red Sea and the
Gulf of Persia. But about these colonies I shall tell in another book.
This time I give only the story of the voyages of actual discovery.
The adventures of men who set out to perform the work of pioneers, the
career of navigators who had convinced themselves that here or there
a new continent or an undiscovered cape or a forgotten island awaited
their curious eyes, and who then risked their fortunes and their lives
to realize their dreams; in one word, the men of constructive vision
who are of greater value to their world than any others because they
show the human race the road of the future.
[Illustration]
In Holland the last of those was a certain Jacob Roggeveen, a man of
deep learning, for many years a member of the High Tribunal of the
Indies, and a leader among his fellow-beings wherever he went. He
had traveled a great deal, and he might have spent the rest of his
few years peacefully at home, but when he was sixty-two years old
the desire to learn more of the Southern Continent which had been
seen, but which had never been thoroughly explored, the wish to know
definitely whether there remained anything as yet undiscovered in the
Pacific Ocean, drove him across the equator. With three ships and six
hundred men he left Texel on the first of August of the year 1721, and
the next year in February he was near Juan Fernandez in the Pacific
Ocean. An expedition like this had never been seen before. All the
experience of past years had been studied most carefully. It was known
that people fell ill and died of scurvy because they did not get enough
fresh vegetables. Wooden boxes filled with earth were therefore placed
along the bulwarks of all the ships. In these some simple and hardy
vegetables were planted. Instead of the old method of taking boxes full
of bread which turned sour and got moldy, ovens were placed on board,
and flour was taken along from which to bake bread. An attempt was
made to preserve carrots and beets in boxes filled with powdered peat.
People still fell ill during this voyage, but the wholesale death of at
least half of the crew of which we read in all the old voyages did not
take place. When Roggeveen reached Juan Fernandez he found the cabin of
Robinson Crusoe just as it had been left in the year 1709. Otherwise
the island proved to be uninhabited. On the seventeenth of March the
ships continued their way, and a southern course was taken. Nothing
was seen until Easter day, when a new island was found on the spot
where an English map hinted at the existence of a large continent. This
island, however, contained nothing except a few natives. It did not in
the least resemble the unknown Southern Continent of which Roggeveen
dreamed. Therefore he went farther toward the south. For a while he
followed the route taken many years before by Le Maire. Some of the
islands which Le Maire had visited he found on his map. Others he could
not locate. Still others were now seen for the first time. It was a
very dangerous sea to navigate. The Pacific Ocean is full of reefs.
These reefs now appear upon the map, but even in this day of scientific
navigation they wreck many a ship. On the nineteenth of April one of
Roggeveen's ships ran upon such a hidden reef in the middle of the
night. The crew was saved, and was divided among the other two vessels.
The ship, however, was a total loss. Nothing could be saved of the
personal belongings of the men and the provisions. It is a curious fact
that the South Sea islands always have had a wonderful fascination
for a certain kind of temperament. Many times while ships crossed the
Pacific in the seventeenth and eighteenth century sailors preferred to
remain behind on some small island and spend the rest of their lives
there with the natives and the fine weather and the long days of
lazy ease. Five of Roggeveen's crew remained behind on one of those
islands, and when in the year 1764 the British explored the King George
Archipelago, they actually found one of these five, then a very old man.
[Illustration]
More than half a year was spent by Roggeveen in exploring the hundreds
of islands and the many groups of larger islands which the industrious
coral insect had built upon the bottom of the ocean. He found the
Samoan Islands, and visited several of the Fiji group. Everywhere he
met with the same sort of natives. How they got there was a puzzle
to Roggeveen. They must have come from some large continent, and he
intended to find that continent. But time went by, and his supplies
dwindled away, and he did not see anything that resembled his famous
continent. Whenever a new peak appeared upon the horizon, there was
hope of reaching the land of promise. But from near by the peak always
proved to be another rock sticking out of a placid sea, and giving
shelter to a few thousand naked savages.
Roggeveen did not stop his search until his men began to get sick and
until he had eaten his last piece of bread. Finally, when two-thirds
of the crew had died, he considered himself beaten in his search, and
after visiting New Guinea he went to the Indies. This expedition, the
last one to sail forth to find the land of Ophir of the Old Testament,
was a failure. We have been obliged to make the same observation about
many of the other voyages which we have described in this little book.
It is true they added some positive knowledge to the map. They located
new islands and described rivers and reefs and currents and the
velocity or absence of wind in distant parts of the Pacific Ocean;
but they always cost the lives of many people, and they ruined the
investors in a most cruel fashion.
Yet they had one great advantage: They forced people to leave their
comfortable homes. They made them go forth and search for things about
which they had had expectant visions. To the rest of the world they
gave the tangible sign that in this little Dutch corner of the North
Sea there lived a people of enterprise and courage who, although very
rich, could yet see beyond mere material gain.
And what more can we ask?
* * * * *
The Author wishes to state his indebtedness to the work of Dr. de
Boer, who first of all turned the lengthy and often tedious reports
of foreign travel into a concise and readable form and brought the
knowledge of these early adventures among a larger number of readers
than before. Copies of the voyages in original and reprint can be found
in many American libraries. The material for illustrations is very
complete. Where no originals were available reprints were made from the
pictures which the publishing firm of Meulenhof and Co. of Amsterdam
printed in Dr. de Boer's first series of ancient voyages.
THE END
* * * * *
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Inconsistent spelling of proper names retained.
p19 "and called it "a lot of of useless noise."" replaced with
"and called it "a lot of useless noise.""
p58 "and was an agreeable change f om the dreary diet" replaced with
"and was an agreeable change from the dreary diet"
p197 "La bataille d'dutre nous et contpe sieux de Manille" has been
left as in the original text. The original intention may have been
"contre nous et contre ceux de Manille".
The battle described took place near Fortune Island, where the
wreck of the San Diego was discovered in 1992.
p273 "that is the last word word we have ever received" replaced with
"and that is the last word we have ever received"