In the
afternoon I steered north-east by east for the islands that we saw.
At two o'clock I
Went and looked over the fore-yard, and saw two
islands at much greater distance than the Turtle Islands are laid
down in my drafts, one of them was a very high peaked mountain,
cleft at top, and much like the Burning Island that we passed by,
but bigger and higher; the other was a pretty long high flat island.
Now I was certain that these were not the Turtle Islands, and that
they could be no other than the Bande Isles, yet we steered in to
make them plainer. At three o'clock we discovered another small
flat island to the north-west of the others, and saw a great deal of
smoke rise from the top of the high island. At four we saw other
small islands, by which I was now assured that these were the Bande
Isles there. At five I altered my course and steered east, and at
eight east-south-east, because I would not be seen by the
inhabitants of those islands in the morning. We had little wind all
night, and in the morning, as soon as it was light we saw another
high peaked island; at eight it bore south-south-east half-east,
distance eight leagues: and this I knew to be Bird Isle. It is
laid down in our drafts in latitude 5 degrees 9 minutes south, which
is too far southerly by twenty-seven miles, according to our
observation, and the like error in laying down the Turtle Islands
might be the occasion of our missing them.
At night I shortened sail, for fear of coming too nigh some islands,
that stretch away bending like a half moon from Ceram towards Timor,
and which in my course I must of necessity pass through. The next
morning betimes I saw them, and found them to be at a farther
distance from Bird Island than I expected. In the afternoon it fell
quite calm, and when we had a little wind, it was so unconstant,
flying from one point to another, that I could not without
difficulty get through the islands where I designed; besides, I
found a current setting to the southward, so that it was betwixt
five and six in the evening before I passed through the islands, and
then just weathered little Watela, whereas I thought to have been
two or three leagues more northerly. We saw the day before, betwixt
two and three, a spout but a small distance from us, it fell down
out of a black cloud, that yielded great store of rain, thunder and
lightning; this cloud hovered to the southward of us for the space
of three hours, and then drew to the westward a great pace, at which
time it was that we saw the spout, which hung fast to the cloud till
it broke, and then the cloud whirled about to the south-east, then
to east-north-east, where meeting with an island, it spent itself
and so dispersed, and immediately we had a little of the tail of it,
having had none before. Afterwards we saw a smoke on the island
Kosiway, which continued till night.
On New Year's Day we first descried the land of New Guinea, which
appeared to be high land, and the next day we saw several high
islands on the coast of New Guinea, and ran in with the main land.
The shore here lies along east-south-east and west-north-west. It
is high even land, very well clothed with tall flourishing trees,
which appeared very green, and gave us a very pleasant prospect. We
ran to the westward of four mountainous islands, and in the night
had a small tornado, which brought with it some rain and a fair
wind. We had fair weather for a long time, only when near any land
we had some tornadoes; but off, at sea, commonly clear weather,
though, if in sight of land, we usually saw many black clouds
hovering about it.
On the 5th and 6th of January we plied to get in with the land,
designing to anchor, fill water, and spend a little time in
searching the country, till after the change of the moon, for I
found a strong current setting against us. We anchored in thirty-
eight fathom water, good oozy ground. We had an island of a league
long without us, about three miles distant, and we rode from the
main about a mile. The easternmost point of land seen bore east-by-
south half-south, distance three leagues, and the westernmost west-
south-west half-south, distance two leagues. So soon as we
anchored, we sent the pinnace to look for water and try if they
could catch any fish. Afterwards we sent the yawl another way to
see for water. Before night the pinnace brought on board several
sorts of fruits that they found in the woods, such as I never saw
before. One of my men killed a stately land-fowl, as big as the
largest dunghill cock; it was of a sky-colour, only in the middle of
the wings was a white spot, about which were some reddish spots; on
the crown it had a large bunch of long feathers, which appeared very
pretty; his bill was like pigeon's; he had strong legs and feet,
like dunghill fowls, only the claws were reddish; his crop was full
of small berries. It lays an egg as big as a large hen's egg, for
our men climbed the tree where it nested, and brought off one egg.
They found water, and reported that the trees were large, tall, and
very thick, and that they saw no sign of people. At night the yawl
came aboard and brought a wooden fish-spear, very ingeniously made,
the matter of it was a small cane; they found it by a small
barbecue, where they also saw a shattered canoe.
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