land was only an island, he made his way
along the dangerous coast of New Guinea to Manila, thus passing through
the straits that were afterwards named after him, and unconsciously
passing almost within sight of the very continent for which he was
searching.

This was the end of Spanish enterprise for the present. The rivals
for sea-power in the seventeenth century were England and Holland.
Both had recently started East India Companies, both were keen to take
a large part in East Indian trade and to command the sea. For a time
the Dutch had it all their own way; they devoted themselves to founding
settlements in the East Indies, ever hoping to discover new islands
in the South Seas as possible trade centres. Scientific discovery held
little interest for them.

As early as 1606 a Dutch ship--the little _Sun_--had been dispatched
from the Moluccas to discover more about the land called by the
Spaniards New Guinea, because of its resemblance to the West African
coast of Guinea. But the crews were greeted with a shower of arrows
as they attempted a landing, and with nine of their party killed, they
returned disheartened.

A more ambitious expedition was fitted out in 1617 by private
adventurers, and two ships--the _Unity_ and the _Horn_--sailed from
the Texel under the command of a rich Amsterdam merchant named Isaac
Le Maire and a clever navigator, Cornelius Schouten of Horn. Having
been provided with an English gunner and carpenter, the ships were
steered boldly across the Atlantic. Hitherto the object of the
expedition had been kept a secret, but on crossing the line the crews
were informed that they were bound for the Terra Australis del Espirito
Santo of Quiros. The men had never heard of the country before, and
we are told they wrote the name in their caps in order to remember
it. By midwinter they had reached the eastern entrance of the Straits
of Magellan, through which many a ship had passed since the days of
Magellan, some hundred years before this. Unfortunately, while
undergoing some necessary repairs here, the little _Horn_ caught fire
and was burnt out, the crews all having to crowd on to the _Unity_.
Instead of going through the strait they sailed south and discovered
Staaten Land, which they thought might be a part of the southern
continent for which they were seeking. We now know it to be an island,
whose heights are covered with perpetual snow. It was named by Schouten
after the Staaten or States-Gen