The 28th we anchored near a small island, where we sent our boat ashore
for fresh water; but finding none, the people brought off some
cocoa-nuts, saying that the island was quite full of cocoa palms, which
had very few nuts upon them. We saw three or four persons on this
island, but they went away and would not come near us: It was supposed
these people were left here to gather cocoa-nuts, to have them ready
when others should come to carry them away. The 26th of the same month,
July 1605, we came to anchor within a league of a large island called
_Bata_,[72] in lat. 20' S. We here set up a shallop or bark, and named
her the _Bat_. This island has no inhabitants, but abounds in woods and
streams of water, as also with fish, monkies, and a kind of bird, said
to be the _bat_ of the country, of which I killed one as large as a
hare. In shape it resembled a squirrel; only that from its sides there
hung down great flaps of skin; which, when he leapt from tree to tree,
he could spread out like a pair of wings, as though to fly with
them.[73] They are very nimble, and leap from bough to bough, often
holding only by their tails. As our shallop was built in _the kingdom of
these beasts_, we called her therefore _the Bat_.

[Footnote 72: _Pulo Botoa_ is about as much north of the line as _Bata_
is said in the text to be south. But the island at which they stopt may
have been _Pulo Mintaon_, about 40 minutes in length from S. to N. and
the north end of which reaches to the equator.--E.]

[Footnote 73: There are a considerable number of animals of this
description, known to naturalists by the general name of flying
squirrels, sciuri volantes, or _Petauri_. The species mentioned in the
text may have been the sciurus petaurista of Linnaeus, the taguan,
flying-cat, flying-hare, or Indian flying-squirrel of various authors.
It is much larger than any others of this genus, being eighteen inches
long from nose to rump. Two varieties are mentioned in authors; one of a
bright chesnut colour; and the other black on the upper parts of the
body, and hoary underneath.--E.]

While walking along the shore on the 29th, I noticed a _roader_, or
small vessel, riding at anchor under a small island about four leagues
off, which made me very glad, hoping it might be our pinnace which we
lost sight of in a great storm near the Cape of Good Hope, and made
haste on board with the news to our general, who sent me with Captain
John Davis next morning