The Entry Is Very Narrow, And Cannot Be Seen
Till Within Half A Mile; But You May Stand Fearlessly To Within Two
Cable's Length Of The Island On Which Is The High Hill, For So You Must
Do, And Will Have 20 Fathoms.
Then stand along that island, at the
distance of a cable's length, if the wind permit, when you will find the
water shoaling, 8, 7, 6 fathoms, and 5 in the narrowest part, which
depth continues till you get into the road of Nera.
With God's help, a
man may go in without danger, keeping near the before-mentioned island.
It is somewhat shallow on the starboard side of the narrow passage, but
that will shew itself. There are two small islands, Pulo-way and
Pulo-rin, about three leagues west of this entrance, but there is no
danger about them that is not quite obvious; and you may leave these
islands on either side you find convenient, either in going in or out.
At this place we found the wind variable about the middle of March, and
it so continued till about the middle of April; when it became
stationary between E. and S.E. four months to our knowledge: But, as the
people of the country say, it continues so for five mouths; and likewise
five months between W. and N.W. the other two months being variable. In
the dark moons, they have here much gusty weather with rains. We staid
here twenty-one weeks and six days, in which time eleven of our men
died, mostly of the flux.
We sailed from Banda the 21st July, 1605, having the wind at E.S.E. and
stood to the westwards. The 22d we fell in with the south end of
Bourro. The 27th we fell in with Deselem, and then came about to the
south end of the island, leaving seven islands to starboard. We then
stood close by the wind to the northward, hard by the main island of
Deselem, to clear ourselves of a small island, and a shoal off the S.W.
part of Deselem; then, leaving this island, and all the other shoals on
our larboard side, we stood N.N.W. along the W. side of Deselem, till we
came into the latitude of 6 deg. 10' S. Then steered 18 leagues west, and
fell in with the shoal off the S.W. point of Celebes, the very southmost
part of which is in lat. 6 deg. S. [only 5 deg. 45',] and being clear of that, we
steered westwards, coming to anchor in Bantam roads on the 16th August.
We set sail from Bantam on the 6th October, the Dragon and Ascension in
company. The 15th November, we were in lat. 31 deg. 48' S. the wind W.N.W.
thick foggy weather, when about 10 a.m. we came within our ship's length
of a rock or sunken island, on which the water appeared very brown and
muddy, and in some places very blue.
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