e we also saw a quantity of
cuttlebone, but the pieces were very small and scattered, so that they
could hardly be seen in hollow water, except by paying very close
attention to them and only 6 or 8 miles off shore, seeing that the steady
west-wind prevents their getting out to sea, which they would certainly
do, if now and then the wind blew from the east for a few days in
succession. Careful estimations based on the globosity of the earth will
give the best signs after all. By estimation we have got into...[*]
Longitude, some of our steersmen having got one or two degrees more, some
less, which in the plane charts makes a considerable difference, about
217 miles by calculation. I repeat that since I have seen the land a good
deal earlier, it will be expedient in the plane chart to mark out a
distance of about 200 miles, to westward of St. Paulo island and to
eastward of Madagascar, the said distance to be passed over in drawing up
reckonings, seeing that the plane chart involves serious drawbacks; the
same might well be done to eastward of the Cape, in such fashion as Your
Worships' cartographers and other experts, such as Master C. J. Lastman,
shall find to be most expedient for the Company's service. Seeing that we
had nothing to do near the coast, and there was a fair wind blowing for
us to make use of, we deemed it advisable that night to run north-west,
and the next morning, having got north into 20 degrees S. Lat., from
there to hold a north by-west course for Java, whither God Almighty may
in safety conduct ourselves and those who shall come after us.

[* Left blank.]

On the 27th do. in the evening, when it had got dark, the water suddenly
turned as white as butter-milk, a thing that none of those on board of us
had ever seen in their lives, and which greatly surprised us all, so
that, concluding it to be caused by a shallow of the sea, we set the
foresail and cast the lead, but since we got no bottom, and with the
rising moon the water again resumed its usual colour, we made all sail
and ran on full speed, satisfied that the strange colour had been caused
by the sky, which was very pale at the time. On the 28th in the morning
very early, the water became thick, and shortly after we sighted land,
being two islands, each of them about 2 miles in length; at 4 miles'
distance from the land we cast the lead in 65 fathom sandy bottom. At
noon in Latitude 8 deg., three miles off shore, we found ourselves to have
ru