rsevere
any longer in an attempt to reach the strait of Macassar, in the
face of fresh westerly winds and a strong easterly current;
particularly, in a vessel so very ill constructed for working to
windward; and what rendered it still more necessary to give up
such an attempt in our situation was, that the master of the
ship, (who had been a number of years in the Dutch service among
the Molucca Islands) assured me, in the presence of some of the
officers, that he did not know of any one place in our route,
short of Batavia, where any supply for our numbers could be had.
The quantity of provisions now on board, at half allowance, was a
supply for about ten weeks, and the water at about two purser's
quarts a man per day, was a supply for the same time, provided we
had no leakage.

We were now driven by currents, notwithstanding our utmost
endeavours to get to the westward, eleven deg. of longitude,
or 220 leagues farther to the eastward than the account by the
ship's run; and that had happened within the last month, and
between the latitudes 3 deg. 00' north, and 6 deg. 30' north.

On the 13th of July we bore away to the northward, it being
determined either to attempt the strait through which the
Acapulco ships pass to the port of Manilla, or to go round the
north end of Luconia, and endeavour to fetch Macao, in China,
though we were a little doubtful about fetching the latter in so
leewardly a vessel. It appeared from the winds that we then had,
that the south-west monsoon at times blows very strong through
the opening between the islands of Mindanao and Celebes, and
reaches a considerable way to the eastward; I can with certainty
say as far as 142 deg. 00' east longitude.

On the 14th in the morning, we saw land bearing north; this we
found to be two islands joined together, or nearly so, by a long
sandy spit, above water, which reached for about two-thirds of
the distance from the eastermost or largest island, to the
westmost, which is small. All round the largest is a sand-bank
above water, which extends from the foot of the higher land about
half a mile into the sea, and may have shoal water from it. We
saw on the beach a few natives running along shore, as the ship
sailed past. These islands are dangerous to people in the night,
on account of the sandy spits which project from them; they were
covered with shrubs, and had but few tall trees on them, and the
land is but low: the latitude of the large or eastmo