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discovered in later times, by Bartolomeo Diaz, a Portuguese navigator, in the year 1487. Vasco de Gama was the first who made a voyage to India round it in 1497, which was looked upon as a kind of prodigy. It remained however useless to Europeans till the year 1650, when Van-Riebeck, a Dutch surgeon, first saw the advantage that would accrue to the East-India Company in Holland, from a settlement at so convenient a distance both from home and from India. The colony which he founded, has ever since continued in the hands of the Dutch, and increased in value for a considerable time after his decease.

The governor depends immediately upon the East-India Company, and has the rank of an Edele Heer, the title given to the members of the supreme council of Batavia. He presides here over a council consisting of the second, or deputy governor, the fiscal, the major (who commands the fort), the secretary, the treasurer, the comptroller of provisions, the comptroller of liquors, and the book-keeper; each of which has a branch of the Company's commerce assigned to his care. This council has the whole management of the civil and military departments, but the deputy-governor presides over another, named the court of