[Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia by Phillip Parker King]@TWC D-Link bookNarrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia CHAPTER 3 6/16
Whilst we were at Coepang several rajahs had arrived from the country to tender their services in marching against the usurper whom the Resident, in his description of him to me, designated by the name of Bonaparte.
For this protection on the part of the Dutch, every rajah pays an annual tribute, according to the extent of his territories; the net amount of which, exceeding the sum of 10,000 rix dollars, very nearly if not quite defrays the expenses of the establishment. Captain Dampier visited this place in 1699 when he commanded the Roebuck; and at first found great difficulty in obtaining refreshments.
He has given a very good and correct description of the island; and his account offers much valuable information even as to its present state.* Since that period it has certainly advanced a few paces in civilization; but in other respects as to its natural and artificial productions it is perfectly conformable to that account. (*Footnote.
Dampier volume 3 pages 157 to 179.) Coepang is also known by its hospitable reception of Lieutenant (the late Admiral) Bligh, after the mutiny of the Bounty's crew; and in 1802 it was visited by Captain Flinders and Commodore Baudin: each of these navigators have spoken warmly of the hospitality they experienced, and I should be doing an injustice to Mr.Hazaart if I omitted a due acknowledgment of his kind attention to our wants, and of the prompt assistance he afforded us in our operations. The presence of a fleet of Malay proas in the roads has been before mentioned; it had just returned from an unsuccessful voyage on the south coast of Timor in search of trepang.
Dramah, the principal rajah of this fleet, gave me the following information respecting the coast of New Holland, which he had frequently visited in the command of a fleet that annually frequents its shores. The coast is called by them Marega, and has been known to them for many years.
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