he Dutch East India Company's
standing and commerce in the East."

[* See below, p. 21, Note 1.]

[** See these instructions in my Life of Tasman, pp. 131 ff. and 147 ff.]

In the instructions for Tasman's voyage of 1644 the G.-G. and Counc.,
who drew them up, could still refer to "the express commands of the
'Heeren Maijoores" [*] to "attempt the discovery of Nova Guinea and other
unknown Eastern and Southern lands." And it is a fact certainly, that in
the first half of the seventeenth century the Governors-General who
planned these exploratory voyages were in their endeavours supported by
the Managers of the E.I.C. in the mother country [**]: it was especially
Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1619-1623 and 1627-1629), Hendrik Broulwer
(1632-1636) and Antonio van Diemen (1636-1645), who were most efficiently
backed in their efforts for this purpose by their principals at home.
Among these Governors-General Van Diemen holds the foremost place as
regards the furtherance of discoveries by Netherlanders in the Far East:
in the Pacific and on, "the mainland coasts of Australia." It is, with
complete justice, therefore, that a foreign author mentions the name of
Van Diemen as "a name which will ever rank among the greatest promotors
of maritime discovery".[***]

[* Meaning the Managers of the E.I.C.]

[** See also the instructions for the voyage of 1636, p. 64 _infra_.]

[*** BURNEY, Chronological History, III, p. 55. Speaking of Van Diemen,
we must not omit to call the reader's attention to sentiments such as the
following: "Whoever endeavours to discover unknown lands and tribes, had
need to be patient and long-suffering, noways quick to fly out, but
always bent on ingratiating himself" (p. 65 _infra_), a piece of advice
elsewhere taking the form of a command, e.g. p. 66: "You will not carry
off with you any natives against their will". And, sad to say, such
injunctions were often imperiously necessary!]

And this same eminent manager of the Company's interests in India lived
to see at the end of his official career far narrower views about
colonial policy not only take root in the mother-country (where isolated
opinions that way had found utterance long before), but even get the
upper hand in the Company's councils. Van Diemen's policy came ultimately
to be condemned in the Netherlands, whatever homage might there be paid
to his eminent talents, whatever acknowledgment vouchsafed to his great
merits! It may almost be called a