At Four
In The Afternoon I Anchored In Eight Fathom Water, Clear Sand, About
Three Leagues And A Half From The Shore.
I presently sent my boat
to sound nearer in, and they found ten fathom about a mile farther
in,
And from thence still farther in the water decreased gradually
to nine, eight, seven, and at two miles distance to six fathom.
This evening we saw an eclipse of the moon, but it was abating
before the moon appeared to us; for the horizon was very hazy, so
that we could not see the moon till she had been half an hour above
the horizon; and at two hours twenty-two minutes after sunset, by
the reckoning of our glasses, the eclipse was quite gone, which was
not of many digits. The moon's centre was then 33 degrees 40
minutes high.
The 31st of August, betimes in the morning, I went ashore with ten
or eleven men to search for water. We went armed with muskets and
cutlasses for our defence, expecting to see people there, and
carried also shovels and pickaxes to dig wells. When we came near
the shore we saw three tall, black, naked men on the sandy bay ahead
of us; but as we rowed in, they went away. When we were landed, I
sent the boat with two men in her to lie a little from the shore at
an anchor, to prevent being seized; while the rest of us went after
the three black men, who were now got on the top of a small hill
about a quarter of a mile from us, with eight or nine men more in
their company.
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