a mile of us. The sea round about them seemed all broken,
and tossed the ship so that she would not answer her helm. These
ripplings commonly lasted ten or twelve minutes, and then the sea became
as still and smooth as a millpond. We sounded often when in the midst of
them, but found no ground, neither could we perceive that they drove us
any way. We had in one night several of these tides, that came mostly
from the west, and the wind being from that quarter we commonly heard
them a long time before they came, and sometimes lowered our topsails,
thinking it was a gust of wind. They were of great length, from north to
south, but their breadth not exceeding 200 yards, and they drove a great
pace. For though we had little wind to move us, yet these world
soon pass away, and leave the water very smooth, and just before we
encountered them we met a great swell, but it did not break." Some time
afterwards, I learnt that an earthquake had been felt on the coast of
Gilolo the very day we had encountered these curious waves.

When daylight came, we saw the land of Gilolo a few miles off, but the
point was unfortunately a little to windward of us. We tried to brace up
all we could to round it, but as we approached the shore we got into a
strong current setting northward, which carried us so rapidly with it
that we found it necessary to stand off again, in order to get out of
its influence. Sometimes we approached the point a little, and our hopes
revived; then the wind fell, and we drifted slowly away. Night found
us in nearly the same position as we had occupied in the morning, so
we hung down our anchor with about fifteen fathoms of cable to prevent
drifting. On the morning of the 7th we were however, a good way up
the coast, and we now thought our only chance would be to got close
in-shore, where there might be a return current, and we could then row.
The prau was heavy, and my men very poor creatures for work, so that it
took us six hours to get to the edge of the reef that fringed the shore;
and as the wind might at any moment blow on to it, our situation was a
very dangerous one. Luckily, a short distance off there was a sandy bay,
where a small stream stopped the growth of the coral; and by evening we
reached this and anchored for the night. Here we found some Galela men
shooting deer and pigs; but they could not or would not speak Malay, and
we could get little information from them. We found out that along shore
the curr