[44] As a matter of fact, the Spanish really only acquired something like mastery over the Philippine Islands at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Up till that time the islands were mostly governed by native chiefs, who paid tribute to Spain, and submitted very willingly to the direction of the Spanish friars or missionary brethren, who acquired considerable influence over the northern part of the Philippine archipelago, where Muhammadanism was not in any way established. The Spaniards never succeeded in finally conquering the whole of the Philippines. This task has only been achieved by their successors, the people of the United States. In 1615 a bold Dutch navigator, JACOB LE MAIRE (of French extraction), determined, in spite of the prohibition of the Dutch East India Company, to find his way independently to the seas and lands of southern Asia by way of the extremity of South America. He sailed in company with another sea captain, SCHOUTEN, and together they discovered and named Staten Island and the celebrated Cape Horn, the southernmost extremity (a little island) of South America, and since famous as the stormiest cape in the world's seas. From this point they followed closely the coast of South America till they got into equatorial latitudes, and then steered boldly across the Pacific Ocean, either not noticing or actually not seeing the many islands or islets that must have been near their course. Apparently the first land they sighted was the north-east coast of New Guinea, after which they got among the Spice Islands and thus eventually reached Batavia, where they were so severely punished by their fellow countrymen for their splendid adventure that Le Maire ultimately died before he could reach Holland. Previous to this date, however, the Dutch had evidently known something about the Australian Continent[45] (of which it was generally believed that New Guinea was a portion), and they no doubt derived this knowledge from information given to them by Malay pilots, and picked up from the Portuguese; for in a work published in 1598 by the Dutch historian, Cornelius Wytfliet, the following passage occurs: "The Terra Australis is the most southern of all lands, and is separated from New Guinea by a narrow strait.... It is ascertained by some to be of so great an extent that if it were thoroughly explored it would be regarded as a fifth part of the world." There is a tradition also that in 1606 a Dutch ship, the _Duyfken_ or _Little Dove_, which was on its way from Java to the western part of New Guinea, was driven out of her course by a typhoon and sighted the north-east coast of Australia (Cape York Peninsula) as far south as Cape Turnagain. Some of the crew landed, but were repulsed by the savage natives. In the year following the arrival of le Maire at Batavia, a Dutch ship, the _Eendracht_, under the command of a navigator called Hertoge, or Hartog, by a similar cause was blown