These projects, which rose rapidly one after another and danced in prismatic radiance before the public view, were regarded with jealous eyes by the South Sea Directors, who wished to have a monopoly of the trade in public credulity. They therefore applied for writs of "scire facias" against their managers, and, by showing them to be frauds, suppressed them. But in thus destroying the national confidence in bubbles generally they seriously undermined that enjoyed by their own. Distrust was now excited, and every one became anxious to convert his bonds into money; and then the enormous disproportion between the promises to pay on paper and the means to redeem in coin became evident to all. The stock fell at once, as the basis which sustained it was proved to be altogether imaginary. Thousands of families were reduced to beggary, and the rage, resentment, and disappointment were bitter and universal. The Company sank into nothingness as rapidly as it had risen to notoriety. Parliament passed a bill by which public confidence was in a measure restored, while the estates of the Directors and officers were confiscated and applied to the relief of the sufferers. The proposed commerce with the Spanish American provinces was naturally never opened, and the next expedition of the English to that quarter, so far from being a voyage for trade, was a very formidable excursion for plunder,--that of Lord Anson, in 1740. We shall refer to this at length in its proper place. [Illustration: HAMMER HEAD SHARK.] [Illustration: THE EAGLE AND THE PIRATE.] CHAPTER XXXIX. THE DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY--RENEWED SEARCH FOR THE TERRA AUSTRALIS INCOGNITA--JACOB ROGGEWEIN--HIS VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY--BRUSH WITH PIRATES--ARRIVAL AT JUAN FERNANDEZ--EASTER ISLAND--ITS INHABITANTS--ENTERTAINMENT OF ONE ON BOARD THE SHIP--A MISUNDERSTANDING--PERNICIOUS AND RECREATION ISLANDS--GLIMPSE OF THE SOCIETY ISLANDS--A FAMINE IN THE FLEET--ARRIVAL AT NEW BRITAIN--CONFISCATION OF THE SHIP AT BATAVIA--DECISION OF THE STATES-GENERAL--VITUS BEHRING--BEHRING'S STRAIT--DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENE--DEATH OF BEHRING--SUBSEQUENT SURVEY OF THE STRAIT.