nto her, and
made preparations to board. Great was his dismay when he saw a line of
ports open in the side of his expected prize, and he found himself under
the guns of a British man-of-war. The panglima hailed, and with many
apologies tried to make it appear that he had acted under a
misapprehension, but his subterfuge was of no avail; a broadside from
the man-of-war sent his vessel at once to the bottom, and he and all his
crew perished, with the exception of two or three who, clinging to a
piece of the wreck, were picked up by a native craft, and carried an
account of the disaster to their chief.

Piracy had been the bane of these seas for years.

We were fortunate in obtaining the full amount of the goods we required
without having to wait much longer at Batavia. There is an old proverb,
"It is an ill wind that blows no one good." The vessel for which they
were intended had lost her master and both mates by sickness, and the
merchant therefore sold them to me. We had not altogether escaped, and
several of our men who were perfectly healthy when we entered the
harbour fell victims to the fever engendered by the pestiferous climate.
We were compelled to fill up their places with others, who afterwards
gave us much trouble.

It was with sincere regret I parted from my friend Van Deck. I was
glad, however, to find that he was likely to obtain employment suited to
his talents under the English Government. The most direct course for
New South Wales would have been through Torres Straits, but the east
trade wind still blowing, compelled us to take the longer route round
the south of New Holland, and through Bass's Straits, not many years
before discovered, between that vast island and the smaller one of Van
Diemen's Land. A northerly breeze at length coming on, enabled us to
sight the south-west point of New Holland, and thence we sailed along
the coast, occasionally seeing tall columns of smoke ascending from the
wood, showing the presence of natives.

On approaching Bass's Straits, the captain was one day expressing his
regret to me that we had not time to anchor off one of the islands in it
to catch seals, great numbers of which animals frequented the place in
those days. He had known, he remarked, considerable sums made in that
way in a very short time. Our conversation, it appeared, was overheard
by one of the men we had shipped at Batavia. We had had a good deal of
insubordination among the crew since