t me down a
printed paper in English, duplicates of which he had in other languages,
particularly in French and Dutch, all regularly signed, in the name of
the governor and council of the Indies, by their secretary: It
contained nine questions, very ill expressed, in the following terms:

"1. To what nation the ship belongs, and its name?
"2. If it comes from Europe, or any other place?
"3. From what place it lastly departed from?
"4. Whereunto designed to go?
"5. What and how many ships of the Dutch Company
by departure from the last shore there layed, and their
names?
"6. If one or more of these ships in company with this,
is departed for this or any other place?
"7. If during the voyage any particularities is happened
or seen?
"8. If not any ships in sea, or the Streights of Sunda,
have seen or hailed in, and which?
"9. If any other news worth of attention, at the place
from whence the ship lastly departed, or during the voyage,
is happened?

BATAVIA, in the Castle.
"By order of the Governor-General
and the Counsellors of India,
J. BRANDER BUNGL, Sec."

Of these questions I answered only the first and the fourth; which when
the officer saw, he said answers to the rest were of no consequence: Yet
he immediately added, that he must send that very paper away to Batavia,
and that it would be there the next day at noon. I have particularly
related this incident, because I have been credibly informed that it is
but of late years that the Dutch have taken upon them to examine the
ships that pass through this Streight.[116]

[Footnote 116: The Dutch East-India Company claimed the absolute
sovereignty of the Straits of Sunda, as possessing the kingdom of
Bantam, on the shore of Java, and having conquered the land of Lampon
and other provinces on the opposite side.--E.]

At ten o'clock the same morning, we weighed, with a light breeze at
S.W.; but did little more than stem the current, and about two o'clock
anchored again under Bantam Point, where we lay till nine; a light
breeze then springing up at S.E. we weighed and stood to the eastward
till ten o'clock the next morning, when the current obliged us again to
anchor in twenty-two fathom, Pulababi bearing E. by S. 1/2 S. distant
between three and four miles. Having alternately weighed and anchored
several times, till four in the afternoon of the 7th, we then stood to
the eastw