P o r t o f
M a n s i n g h a m .
L o n g I s l a n d .
SCHOUTENS’ .
J a m n a AND
Mo A.
LAND of P A PU A S , or N EW G U IN E A .
pafs, and full o f trees. Here Captain Forrejl accomplifhed the
end o f his million ; he found on. it abundance of nutmeg trees*,
and paid five pieces o f baftas, his promiled reward, to any perfon
who difcovered them.. .The fruit was pendent on the old trees,
and the young plants growing under their lhade. He took up
above a hundred, put them into balkets with earth round them,
and then haftened on his return to Balambangan.
C a p ta in F o r r e s t finilhed his voyage at port Manjingham,
at a very fmall diftance from Dorp,harbor. The land from that
port recedes deeply to. the fouth, and forms a large bay, gradually
narrowing to the bottom. In Mr. Arrowfm.itb's map the
lower part is under the fufpicion o f being an illand ; it is, marked
on each-fide with double dotted lines, exprelfive o f ftreights,
which opens foutherly towards, the Arrou illes. The promontory
o f Dory and Geetvinks Point are the two horns o f this bay.
Bong IJland lies at a fmall. diftance to the north o f Geetvinks
Point; anfl in Lat. o* 46' S. is Schouten'Sj named in honor of the
gre.at-circumnavigator ,w1iq difcovered it in 1616. It is about
twenty leagues in length, high and fertile, populous, and the
inhabitants an adtive race.. The coaft extends far to the eaft.
.Off i,t is a fucceffion o f finall illes, feveral of them volcanic,
and called .by ScLouten, Vulcans,- and by Dampier, burning illes,
Jamna and Moa are, other fmall iflands, well inhabited, and
abounding with cocoa nuts and various fruits. Captain Forrejl
gives us two prints reprefenting the natives and their canoes:
their hair is flatted on the top of the head; fome decorate it
with a feather, and others bind a wreath round their temples
*,P. 108,no,
and
N E W B R I T A I N . 223
and head. They wear great ear-rings, and bones ftuck through
their ears and noftrils. Men women and children go armed
with bows and arrows.
A f t e r proceeding along the coaft farther eaftward, the dif-
coveries o f our famous navigator Dampier thicken on u s ; an
archipelago appears with the Crown IJland, that o f Sir Robert
Rich, another long illand, Sir George Rooke's, and feveral others, S i r G e o r c i
many o f which were aitive volcanoes.
In Lat. 1° 18' S. Dampier difcovered a new land to the
north, divided from New Guinea by a ftreight from fix to feven
leagues wide, each fide marked by a lofty cape ; to one he gave
the name o f King William's, to that on the north fide Cape '
Anne, and within each was a very high mountain, Hoping
gradually to the fea; the mountains and lower lands finely
cloathed with trees, intermixed with beautiful Savannas o f the
moft flourilhing verdure. This northern land he named New N e w B r i t a i n .
Britain.
We will follow his track as far as will prove it to be an illand,
or polfibly more than one. Let me obferve, that- Dampier's
approach was the reverfe from that which we now take. In
Lat. 6° 10' fouth, he put into a bay named by him Port Montagu. P o r t
The country was mountanous, wooded, full o f rich vallies and
pleafant ftreams of frelh water. The trees were o f various
kinds, fome in flower, others bore berries, and others large
fruits; and cocoa palms in-abundance, but the nuts were fmall;
here were alfo yams, and other good efculent roots, and ginger.
The quadrupeds were hogs and dogs ; polfibly it was from
hence that the South Sea illes were flocked with thofe animals,
being