Note 6 — INTRODUCTION.

This name, from the Dutch form which it bears, might suggest the idea that the visitor was a Dutchman; but it must be remembered that the Dutch were not in those seas till the end of the sixteenth century, and that the Synod of Dort was held in the years 1618 and 1619, which renders the suggestion at the close of the paragraph as to “the images to represent their divinity” unreasonable as coming from a native of that country. It is more probable that, from the lapse of time, a mistake was made in the repetition of the name by a savage, and that a Portuguese, and not a Dutchman, suggested the use of images to represent a divinity.