s neglecting this opportunity, I take it for granted that he was
circumscribed, both as to his course and to the time he was to employ in
these discoveries, by his instructions, for otherwise so able a seaman
and so curious a man as his journal shows him to have been, would not
certainly have neglected so fair an opportunity.

CHAPTER XI: AND AN ARCHIPELAGO OF TWENTY SMALL ISLANDS.

On February 6th, being in 17 degrees 19 minutes of south latitude, and in
the longitude of 201 degrees 35 minutes, we found ourselves embarrassed
by nineteen or twenty small islands, every one of which was surrounded
with sands, shoals, and rocks. These are marked in the charts by the
name of Prince William's Islands, or Heemskirk's Shallows. On the 8th we
were in the latitude of 15 degrees 29 minutes, and in the longitude of
199 degrees 31 minutes. We had abundance of rain, a strong wind from the
north-east, or the north-north-east, with dark cold weather. Fearing,
therefore, that we were run farther to the west than we thought ourselves
by our reckoning, and dreading that we should fall to the south of New
Guinea, or be thrown upon some unknown coast in such blowing misty
weather, we resolved to stand away to the north, or to the north-north-
west, till we should arrive in the latitude of 4, 5, or 6 degrees south,
and then to bear away west for the coast of New Guinea, as the least
dangerous way that we could take.

It is very plain from hence, that Captain Tasman had now laid aside all
thoughts of discovering farther, and I think it is not difficult to guess
at the reason; when he was in this latitude, he was morally certain that
he could, without further difficulty, sail round by the coast of New
Guinea, and so back again to the East Indies. It is therefore extremely
probable that he was directed by his instructions to coast round that
great southern continent already discovered, in order to arrive at a
certainty whether it was joined to any other part of the world, or
whether, notwithstanding its vast extent, viz., from the equator to 43
degrees of south latitude, and from the longitude of 123 degrees to near
190 degrees, it was, notwithstanding, an island. This, I say, was in all
appearance the true design of his voyage, and the reason of it seems to
be this: that an exact chart being drawn from his discoveries, the East
India Company might have perfect intelligence of the extent and situation
of this now-found country bef