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 colour than black; some having short,
others long hair, dressed after different fashions; they were also a
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
their commodities, and who are likewise visited at certain seasons by the
people of these islands in their turn.