Note.
"Betagh has fully shewn, that the navigation round Cape Horn is no such dangerous or wonderful voyage. If twenty ships from St Malo could perform it in one year, and not a single vessel either shipwrecked or forced to put back, what shall hinder an English ship or an English fleet from doing the same? We see from the foregoing account, with how much ease the French carried on a prodigious trade to the South Seas, at a time when the appearance of an English ship there was esteemed a prodigy. We certainly can send our frigates there, as well as the French can their ships from St Malo; and it might be well worth the while of our merchants to send out ships to the coasts of Chili and Peru, laden with proper goods for that country."Harris.
In the present day, this trade to the coasts of Chili and Peru has been resumed by the citizens of the United States; but the subjects of Britain are debarred from even attempting to take a share, because within the exclusive limits of the East India Company; although their ships never come nearer to the western coast of America than Canton in China, at the enormous distance of 174 degrees of longitude, and 59 degrees of latitude, counting from Canton in China to Conception in Peru, or upwards of twelve thousand English miles. It is certainly at least extremely desirable, that a trade of such promise should not remain any longer prohibited, merely to satisfy a punctilio, without the most distant shadow of benefit to the India Company, or to the nonentity denominated the South-sea Company.Ed.
CHAPTER XIII.
VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY COMMODORE ROGGEWEIN, is 1721-1723.[1]
INTRODUCTION.
There was, perhaps, no country in the world where commerce was more profitable, or held more honourable, than in Holland, or where more respect and attention was shewn to it by the government. As the republic chiefly subsisted by trade, every thing relating to it was considered as an affair of a public nature, in which the welfare of the state was concerned, and highly deserving therefore of the strictest and readiest attention. The great companies in Holland, as in other countries, were considered as injurious to trade in some lights, yet necessary to its welfare in others. The West India Company of that country, originally erected in 1621, held, by an exclusive charter, the commerce of the coast of Africa, from the tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, and that of America, from the southern point of Newfoundland in the N.E. all along the eastern coast to the Straits of Magellan or Le Maire, and thence northwards again along the western coast, to the supposed Straits of Anian, thus including the entire coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The directors of this company consisted of seventy-two persons, divided into five chambers, of whom eighteen were chosen to administer the affairs of the Company, together with a nineteenth person, nominated by the States-General.
The affairs of this Company were once in so very flourishing a condition, that it was considered as even superior to their East India Company. This prosperity was chiefly owing, to the happy success of their affairs at sea; as their admiral, Peter Haines, in the 1629, captured the Spanish plate fleet, laden with immense riches. They at one time made themselves masters of the greatest part of Brazil; and were so considerable that the great Count Maurice of Nassau did not think it beneath him to accept a commission from this Company as Governor-General of Brazil; which country, however, after it had cost them immense sums to defend, they at length lost. The term of their charter, originally limited to twenty-four years, expired in 1647, and was then renewed for other twenty-five years. During this second period, their affairs became so perplexed, so that the Company was dissolved towards the close of that term, with its own consent.
In 1674, a new company was erected, by letters patent from the States-General, with nearly the same powers and privileges, which has subsisted ever since with great reputation.[2] The capital of this new company consisted of six millions of florins, which are equal to 545,454l. 10s. 10d. 10-11ths sterling. And the limits of their authority are the western coast of Africa and both coasts of America, all the establishments of the Dutch in these countries being under their authority, so that any one who proposes a new scheme of commerce in those parts, must necessarily apply himself to that company. Under these circumstances, a Mr Roggewein, a person of parts and enterprize, formed a project for the discovery of the vast continent and numerous islands, supposed to be in the southern part of the globe, under the name of Terra Australis Incognita, of which the world had hitherto only very imperfect notices from others; which project, with a plan for carrying the discovery into execution, they presented to the Dutch East India Company[3] in 1696, by which it was favourably received, and he was assured of receiving all the assistance and support he could desire or expect, as soon as the affairs of the Company would permit. But the disturbances which soon afterwards followed put a stop to the good intentions of the Company; and Mr Roggewein died before any thing could be done. Mr Roggewein was a gentleman of the province of Zealand, who had addicted himself from his youth to mathematical studies, and we have reason to suppose recommended his projected discovery on his death-bed to his son.