The Solitary
Giant Seen Looking At The Ships From A Distance, May Have Been Of The
Ordinary Size, Magnified To The Eye In Looking Through A Hazy
Atmosphere.
- E.]
CHAPTER VI.
VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, IN 1615-1617, BY WILLIAM CORNELISON SCHOUTEN AND
JACQUES LE MAIRE, GOING ROUND CAPE HORN.[102]
INTRODUCTION.
The States General of the United Provinces having granted an exclusive
privilege to the Dutch East India Company, prohibiting all their
subjects, except that company, from trading to the eastwards beyond the
Cape of Good Hope, or westwards through the Straits of Magellan, in any
of the countries within these limits, whether known or unknown, and
under very heavy penalties; this prohibition gave great dissatisfaction
to many rich merchants, who were desirous of fitting out ships and
making discoveries at their own cost, and thought it hard that their
government should thus, contrary to the laws of Nature, shut up those
passages which Providence had left free. Among the number of these
discontented merchants was one Isaac Le Maire, a rich merchant of
Amsterdam, then residing at Egmont, who was well acquainted with
business, and had an earnest desire to employ a portion of the wealth he
had acquired in trade in acquiring fame as a discoverer. With this view
he applied to William Cornelison Schouten of Horn, a man in easy
circumstances, deservedly famous for his great skill in maritime
affairs, and his extensive knowledge of trade in the Indies, having been
thrice there in the different characters of supercargo, pilot, and
master.
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