look'd upon as a mere sham
or piece of drollery; "{1} and there are few contemporary references to
the relation of either Pine or Van Sloetten, and those few are of little
moment If the seamen, who were in a position to point out discrepancies
of fad in the story, made any comment or criticism, I have failed to
discover them.

1 Athenae Oxomiensis (Bliss), iv. 410.

Neville himself freely played with the subject, and it is strange that
he did not excite some suspicion of his veracity among his readers.
He had told in his first part of a Dutch ship which was driven by foul
weather to the island and of the giving to the Dutch the story of
Pine. His second part is the story of the Dutch captain, sailing from
Amsterdam, re-discovering the Isle of Pines, and returning home--that
is, to Holland. Yet Neville for the combined issue, and presumably only
a few days after giving out the first part, composed two letters from
a merchant of Amsterdam--Abraham Keek--dated June 29 and July 6, saying
that the last post from Rochelle brought intelligence of a French vessel
which had just arrived and reported the discovery of this very island,
but placing it some two or three hundred leagues "Northwest from Cape
Finis Terre," though, he added with reasonable caution, "it may be that
there may be some mistake in the number of the Leagues, as also of the
exact [41]point of the compass from Cape Finis Terre."

Keek offered an additional piece of geographical information, that "some
English here suppose it maybe the Island of Brasile which have been so
oft sought for, Southwest from Ireland."{1} The first letter of Keek is
dated five days after the licensing of the first part of the "Isle
of Pines," and the second sixteen days before the date of Sloetten's
narrative. It is hardly possible that Neville could have been forgetful
of his having made a Dutch vessel responsible for the discovery and
history of Pine, and it is more than probable that he took this means of
giving greater verisimilitude to the Isle of Pines, by bringing forward
an independent discovery by a French vessel. However intended, the ruse
did not contribute to such a purpose, as the combined parts did not
enjoy as wide a circulation as the first part.

1 See page 53, infra.

On the continent a German, who knew the tract only as translated into
German through a Dutch version of the English text, and therefore
imperfectly, gave it serious consideration, and ha