then shortened sail, and kept upon a wind all night; four
hours on one tack and four on another. At day-light we made all the sail
we could, and steered W.N.W. till eight o'clock, and then N.W. At noon
our latitude, by observation, was 9 deg. 56' S., longitude 221 deg. W.;
variation 2 deg. 30' E. We continued our N.W. course till sun-set, when we
again shortened sail, and hauled close upon a wind to the northward:
Our depth of water was twenty-one fathom. At eight, we tacked and stood
to the southward till twelve; then stood to the northward, with little
sail, till day-light: Our soundings were from twenty-five to seventeen
fathom, the water growing gradually shallow as we stood to the
northward. At this time we made sail and stood to the north, in order to
make the land of New Guinea: From the time of our making sail, till
noon, the depth of water gradually decreased from seventeen to twelve
fathom, with a stoney and shelly bottom. Our latitude, by observation,
was now 8 deg. 52' S, which is in the same parallel as that in which the
southern parts of New Guinea are laid down in the charts; but there are
only two points so far to the south, and I reckoned that we were a
degree to the westward of them both, and therefore did not see the land,
which trends more to the northward. We found the sea here to be in many
parts covered with a brown scum, such as sailors generally call spawn.
When I first saw it, I was alarmed, fearing that we were among shoals;
but upon sounding, we found the same depth of water as in other places.
This scum was examined both by Mr Banks and Dr Solander, but they could
not determine what it was: It was formed of innumerable small particles,
not more than half a line in length, each of which in the microscope
appeared to consist of thirty or forty tubes; and each tube was divided
through its whole length by small partitions into many cells, like the
tubes of the conferva: They were supposed to belong to the vegetable
kingdom, because, upon burning them, they produced no smell like that of
an animal substance. The same appearance had been observed upon the
coast of Brazil and New Holland, but never at any considerable distance
from the shore. In the evening a small bird hovered about the ship, and
at night, settling among the rigging, was taken. It proved to be exactly
the same bird which Dampier has described, and of which he has given a
rude figure, by the name of a Noddy, from New Holland. [See his