eren[61] was about
twenty-eight miles E.S.E. of us, and we could see it from the mast
head, as was the fact. We laid over again immediately. It now began to
blow more from the S.W. and S.W. by W. We had sailed the last night
west by north, according to reckoning, twenty-eight miles. This result
agreed with my observation within less than four miles, and that of
our mate, named Evert. But the captain's and the English mate's
calculation brought us before the Maes, as Evert[62] told me.

[Footnote 61: The westernmost island of the province of Zeeland.]

[Footnote 62: Evert Duyckinck; see _post_, p. 28, note 2.]

We sailed now for a day or two among great quantities of June-bugs or
cock-chafers, which had been driven off from the land and drowned,[63]
which caused us to reflect upon what God did formerly in Egypt and
elsewhere, and still often does, for His power is always the same,
although it is not always understood.

[Footnote 63: In the fragmentary manuscript journal of the voyage of
1683, Danckaerts notices, on land, between Canterbury and Dover, the
same great abundance of beetles, which every evening fly out to sea
from Dover in great numbers.]

_30th, Friday._ We tacked over to the Flemish coast this morning in
twenty-five fathoms of water; but it was so calm that we made little
progress. It was too cloudy to take the latitude. The wind was very
variable, and we could not keep on S.W., or even south, and so drifted
for the most part with the tide.

JULY _1st, Saturday._ We had drifted the whole night in the calm, and
had gone backwards instead of forwards; but in the morning the wind
began to blow out of the N.W. and N.N.W. with a stiff breeze. We
therefore set all sail, and went ahead tolerably well on a straight
course W. by S. and W.S.W. against the current. We saw land many times
about two hours' distance, both on the starboard and larboard, that on
the starboard being the cape of Dover, and on the larboard, the cape
of Calais. There was a free wind and fine weather, though a little
haze on the horizon. The land began to loom up more distinctly, and I
sketched it twice with crayon. We continued to catch plenty of
mackerel, and also weevers and whitings. We arrived before Dover at
sunset, when we fired a gun, and a boat came off to us immediately, by
which the captain sent some letters ashore. We inquired of them the
news, and they answered us all was well; but they told the captain
privately that 30,000