In My
Drafts It Is Laid Down In 8 Degrees 10 Minutes.
My true course from
Babao, is east 25 degrees north, distance one hundred eighty-three
miles.
We sounded several times when near Omba, but had no ground.
On the north-east point of Omba we saw four or five men, and a
little further three pretty houses on a low point, but did not go
ashore.
At five this afternoon we had a tornado, which yielded much rain,
thunder, and lightning; yet we had but little wind. The 24th in the
morning we caught a large shark, which gave all the ship's company a
plentiful meal.
The 27th we saw the Burning Island; it lies in latitude 6 degrees 36
minutes south; it is high, and but small; it runs from the sea a
little sloping towards the top, which is divided in the middle into
two peaks, between which issued out much smoke: I have not seen
more from any volcano. I saw no trees; but the north side appeared
green, and the rest looked very barren.
Having passed the Burning Island, I shaped my course for two
islands, called Turtle Isles, which lie north-east by east a little
easterly, and distant about fifty leagues from the Burning Isle. I
fearing the wind might veer to the eastward of the north, steered
twenty leagues north-east, then north-east by east. On the 28th we
saw two small low islands, called Lucca-Parros, to the north of us.
At noon I accounted myself twenty leagues short of the Turtle Isles.
The next morning, being in the latitude of the Turtle Islands, we
looked out sharp for them, but saw no appearance of any island till
eleven o'clock, when we saw an island at a great distance. At first
we supposed it might be one of the Turtle Isles, but it was not laid
down true, neither in latitude nor longitude from the Burning Isle,
nor from the Lucca-Parros, which last I took to be a great help to
guide me, they being laid down very well from the Burning Isle, and
that likewise in true latitude and distance from Omba, so that I
could not tell what to think of the island now in sight, we having
had fair weather, so that we could not pass by the Turtle Isles
without seeing them, and this in sight was much too far off for
them. We found variation 1 degrees 2 minutes east. 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.
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