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INTRODUCTION.
of its coasts: during the seventeenth century several voyages were made by different Dutch navigators, from whom we have the first-recorded description of its shores; but from the jealous disposition of their East India Company, under whose orders these voyages were performed, the accounts of them were so concealed, and consequently lost or destroyed, that few particulars of a detailed nature have been handed down [1].
- ↑ In the voyages of Gautier Schouten, published at Amsterdam in 1708, duod. vol. i. p. 41, et seq., there is the following curious account of the wreck of a ship on the coast of New Holland :—
"Il me semble que je ne dois pas omettre ici une histoire, de la certitude de laquelle on n'eut pas lieu de douter. Dès-que la nouvelle fut venuë à Batavia, [Anno 1659,] que le vaisseau le Dragon, qui venoit de Hollande aux Indes, avoit fait naufrage sur les côtes d'une Terre Australe inconnuë, on y envoia la flûte la Boüée à la Veille, pour ramener ceux des gens de l'équipage qui auroient pu se sauver, et les éfets qui auroient été conservez.
"La flûte étant conduite par ceux qui étoient échapez
