Note 60 — VII.

All the Dutch Indiamen on the home voyage from Batavia, during the months of October till May, have been for many years in the habit of running south till they sighted St. Paul, so as to catch the S. E. Trades. But it has never been the policy of the Dutch to attract attention to the eastern seas, and accordingly no information found its way to Europe respecting these interesting islands, till the period mentioned in the text.