The first Voyage to the Eaft Indies, on the Account با 334 A Voyage to the Cape de Verde Islands, by Captain --357 Mr. Peter Kolben's Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, containing an Account of the Dutch A COLLECTION O F VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. Mr. JOHN NIEUHOFF's Voyage to, and Account of BRASIL, in SOUTH AMERICA. MR. earl John Nieuhoff, born at Ufen in the dom of Benthem, and defcended from a reputable family, engaged in the Dutch Weft india company's fervice as fupercargo, on the 24th of October, 1640, and failed the fame day out of the Texel, in a fhip called the Roebuck, of twenty-eight guns, and one hundred and thirty men. Nothing remarkable occurred till the 6th of November, when they were attacked by two Turkish pirates, whom, after a very warm engagement, they obliged to fheer off. After a voyage of feven weeks and one day, without any other material incident, they made the coast of Brafil, having in their courfe touched at an inland called Fernando, fifty leagues from thence; which ifland, about the year 1630, was inhabited by the Dutch, but deferted by them a few years after, on account of rats that fwarmed there, and plundered the earth of its produce. After the Dutch had forfaken this land of vermin, the council of Brafil appointed it the receptacle of malefactors; who, on VCL. II. B being being exiled there, were furnished with inftruments necessary to work a fubfiftence out of the bowels of the earth. About the latter end of Auguft, 1643, Mr. Nieuhoff was ordered on a trading voyage to the ifland of St. Thomas; for which purpofe he was furnished with a ship, and a cargo of fullers earth, to be there exchanged for black ginger and fugar, the principal commodities of the place. St. Thomas is thirty-fix leagues in compafs, of a circular form, and very fertile in fugar and black ginger in the midst of this island there are mountains conftantly covered with fnow, though the adjacent vallies, as may be expected under the line, are fcorched with exceffive heat. The air is unhealthy, efpecially to foreigners. After a voyage of three months, Mr. Nicuhoff arrived fafe at Brafil, having fulfilled the purpose for which he had embarked. Brafil, fo called by the Portuguese from the wood of that name which abounds there, was originally discovered in the year 1500 by Pedro Alvarez de Cabral, who gave it the name of Santa Cruz: as to its extent, geographers materially difagree; but, according to the most authentic calculation, it meafures from the river Para to the river Capibari, fituated north and fouth, three hundred and feventy-five leagues; the extent from eaft to weft is more doubtful, but computed at feven hundred and forty-two leagues. The Portuguese have divided Brafil into fourteen diftricts, which they call Kapitanas or captainfhips, each of which is watered by fome confiderable river, with other ftreams of leffer note. The river named St. Francis, claims precedence of all others in this country in point of fize; yet, though it is broad and deep, fhips of burden are prevented from entering it by fands which choak up its mouth. In the lake whence whence this river takes its rife, there is a large quantity of gold duft found, fuppofed to be washed down by the rivulets which glide through the caverns of the Peruvian mountains. It is worthy of obfervation, that the river St. Francis rolls the largeft ftream at that feafon of the year when rains feldom fall; which is attributed to the vaft quantity of fnow diffolved by the fummer fun upon the mountain tops. Six of the captain hips already mentioned, were under, the government of the Dutch Weft, India company, during their poffeffion of this place; and were diftinguished from the other eight by being filed the Northern Brafil; thofe belonging to the Portuguese were called the Southern. The Dutch captainfhips extended along the feacoaft from north to fouth, one hundred and fixty or one hundred and eighty leagues; each of them being divided into feveral fmaller diftricts, called by the Portuguese Fregefias, and by the Dutch Fregefien. The captainfhip of Seregippe del Rey, likewife called Carigi from a lake of that name, lies in the southern part of Brafil, upon the river of St. Francis near the fea-coaft; in extent thirty-two leagues, and has in it a Fregefia called Porto Calvo, in which there is a village named Villa de Bon Succeffo de Porto Calvo, fituated upon a rifing ground, near four leagues from the fea,fhore, and fortified with two forts built by the Dutch: the village contains two ftreets, and is fupplied with a good air by the fea breezes that fan it. 1 This captainfhip was fubjected to the Spaniards of Portuguese, by Chriftovan Barros, who was rewarded for his fervice with a confiderable tract of land, and a power to fettle colonies on it; many perfons repaired thither from the Bay of All Saints, and fhortly built a fmall town, which was, on the 24th of December, 1637, laid waste by the Dutch. Parnambuko, one of the largeft, Dutch captainhips, which derives its name from the hidden rocks B 2 and |