this time, being between three and four
leagues from the shore, and the yawl having found only three fathom
water in the place to which I had sent her to sound, I hauled off close
upon a wind, and weathered the shoal about half a mile.

Between one and two o'clock we passed a bay or inlet, before which lies
a small island that seems to shelter it from the southerly winds; but I
very much doubt whether there is sufficient depth of water behind it for
shipping. I could not attempt to determine the question, because the
S.E. trade-wind blows right into the bay, and we had not as yet had any
breeze from the land.

We stretched off to sea till twelve o'clock, when we were about eleven
leagues from the land, and had deepened our water to twenty-nine fathom.
We now tacked and stood in till five in the morning, when, being in six
fathom and a half, we tacked and laid the head of the vessel off till
daylight, when we saw the land, bearing N.W. by W., at about the
distance of four leagues. We now made sail, and steered first W.S.W.,
then W. by S.; but coming into five fathom and a half, we hauled off
S.W. till we deepened our water to eight fathom, and then kept away W.
by S. and W., having nine fathom, and the land just in sight from the
deck; we judged it to be about four leagues distant, and it was still
very low and woody. Great quantities of the brown scum continued to
appear upon the water, and the sailors having given up the notion of its
being spawn, found a new name for it, and called it sea saw-dust. At
noon, our latitude, by observation, was 8 deg. 30' S., our longitude 222 deg.
34' W.; and Saint Bartholomew's Isle bore N. 69 E., distant seventy-four
miles.

As all this coast appears to have been very minutely examined by the
Dutch, and as our track will appear by the chart, it is sufficient to
say, that we continued our course to the northward with very shallow
water, upon a bank of mud, at such a distance from the shore as that it
could scarcely be seen from the ship till the third of September. During
this time we made many attempts to get near enough to go on shore, but
without success; and having now lost six days of fair wind, at a time
when we knew the south-east monsoon to be nearly at an end, we began to
be impatient of farther delay, and determined to run the ship in as near
to the shore as possible, and then land with the pinnace, while she kept
plying off and on to examine the produce of the country, and