From Thence
Till Three A.M. Of The 6th, We Sailed W. Six Leagues.
At six in the
evening of the 5th we had 9 f. which increased as we stood westwards in
the night, to 10, 11, and l2 f. and afterwards decreased to 8 f. where
we came to anchor.
The stream by night set S.E. and by day N.W. We
weighed again at six a.m. of the 6th, and steered W.N.W. 1-1/2 league,
when we had sight of many hummocks rising like so many islands, but
which at length we perceived to be all one land. Coming now into 6-1/2
f. we altered our course to the N.E. making our course N.N.E. till noon,
about 2-1/2 leagues; at which time, by an observation of the sun, we
were in lat. 3 deg. 20' S. We were now in 8 f. and found the current to set
N.W. by W. About noon of this day, a junk belonging to Johor came up
with us, which had been at Cheribon in Java, and was returning to Johor.
The afternoon, we steered in with the eastern part of the hummocky land
of Banka, making our course N.N.E. 1/2 N. in which we came again to 8 f.
afterwards increasing regularly to 24 f. and then decreasing again to a
quarter less 7 f. when we came to anchor against the E. point of that
land, which bore from us N.N.E. 1/3 N. four leagues off.
We weighed in the morning of the 7th, and stood in nearer the point, in
hopes of being able to pass through between that island and one which
lay three leagues to the E. But in our way, we found the soundings,
after increasing from 7 to 17 f. to decrease again to 6 and to one-half
less 4 f. and about two miles off the point in the fair way we had only
six feet water in the fair way, or mid-channel. To the eastwards, there
appeared many islands, and by the report of the people in the junk, the
sea is full of islands between the S.E. end of Banka and the island of
Borneo. The S.E. end of Banka now bore N.N.E. 1/2 N. about two leagues
off; and the land from this point to the entrance of the straits of
Banka, lay W. by S. the straits being thirteen leagues from us. Where we
lay at anchor, the before-mentioned point bearing N. by E. 1/2 E. 2-1/2
leagues off, we had an observation of the sun, giving the latitude of
the ship 3 deg. 8' S. Having little hope of finding a passage between Banka
and Borneo among these islands, by reason of the fearful shoalings we
had already met with, we resolved on the 8th to go through the straits
between the island of Banka and Sumatra, called the Straits of Banka;
wherefore we set sail, retracing as nearly as we could the course by
which we came into the present shoal water; in which course we found
still more dangerous shoalings than in our in-coming.
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