Page 98

Cook's Descriptions of Places

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New Guinea (continued) through the Straights of Sunda - the way I propose to my self to go; besides as the ship is leaky we are not yet sure whether or no we shall not be obliged to heave her down at Batavi, in this case it be comes the more necessary that we should make the best of our way to that place, especially as no new discovery can be expected to be made in those seas which the Dutch have I beleive long ago narrowly examined, as appears from ^3 Maps bound up with the French History of Voyages to the Terra Australis, published in 1756, which Maps I do suppose by some means have been got from the Dutch as we find the names of many of the places are in that Language. It should likewise seem from the same Maps that the Spaniards and Dutch have at one time or a nother circumnavigated the whole of the Island of New Guinea as the most of the names are in these two Languages, and such part of the Coast as we have been ^were upon I fo^und the Chart tolerable good which obliges me to give some Credit to all the rest notwithstanding we neither know by whome or when they were taken, and I allways understood before I had a sight of these Maps that it was unknown whether or no New-Holland and New-Guinea was not one continued land, and so it is a said in the very History of Voyages these Maps are bou^ntd up in; however we have now put this wholy Voyaging Accounts © Transcribed from National Library of Australia Manuscript 1 page 308, 2004 Published by South Seas To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/cook_remarks-098