n the means of
bringing on the Flux. We were inclinable to lay it to the water we took
in at Princes Island, and the Turtle we got their, on which we lived
several days; but there seems to be no reason for this when we consider
that all the Ships from Batavia this Year suffer'd by the same disorder
as much as we have done, and many of them arrived at this place in a far
worse State; and yet not one of the Ships took any water in at Princes
Island. The same may be said of the Harcourt Indiaman, Captain Paul, who
sail'd from Batavia soon after our arrival, directly for the Coast of
Sumatra; we afterwards heard that she, in a very short time, lost by
Sickness above 20 men; indeed, this seem to have been a year of General
Sickness over most parts of India, the Ships from Bengal and Madrass
bring Melancholly Accounts of the Havock made there by the united force
of Sickness and famine.

Some few days after we left Java we saw, for 3 or 4 evenings succeeding
one another, boobies fly about the ship. Now, as these birds are known to
roost every night on land they seem'd to indicate that some Island was in
our neighbourhood; probably it might be the Island Selam, which Island I
find differently laid down in different Charts, both in Name and
Situation.

The variation of the Compass off the West Coast of Java is about 3
degrees West, which Variation continues, without any sencible difference
in the Common Track of Ships, to the Longitude of 288 degrees West,
Latitude 22 degrees 0 minutes South. After this it begins to increase
apace, in so much that in the Longitude of 295 degrees, Latitude 23
degrees, the Variation was 10 degrees 20 minutes West; in 7 degrees more
of Longitude and one of Latitude it increased 2 degrees; in the same
space farther to the West it increased 5 degrees; in the Latitude of 28
degrees and Longitude 314 degrees it was 24 degrees 20 minutes; in the
Latitude 29 degrees and Longitude 317 degrees it was 26 degrees 10
minutes, and continued to be much the same for the space of 10 degrees
farther to the West; but in the Latitude of 34 degrees, Longitude 333
degrees we observed it twice to be 28 1/4 degrees West; but this was the
greatest Variation we observed, for in the Latitude of 35 1/2 degrees,
Longitude 337 degrees, it was 24 degrees, and continued decreasing, so
that of Cape Laguillas it was 22 degrees 30 minutes and in Table Bay it
was 20 degrees 30 minutes West.

From what I have observed of the Curr