d to the southward
again. In the morning, we found the variation to be 1 deg. 10' W. by the
amplitude, and by the azimuth 1 deg. 27'. At noon, our latitude was, by
observation, 9 deg. 45' S., our longitude 234 deg. 12' W.; we were then about
seven leagues distant from the land, which extended from N. 31 E. to
W.S.W. 1/2 W.

With light land-breezes from W. by N. for a few hours in a morning, and
sea-breezes from S.S.W. and S. we advanced to the westward but slowly.
At noon on the 14th, we were between six and seven leagues from the
land, which extended from N. by E. to S. 78 W.; we still saw smoke in
many places by day, and fire by night, both upon the low land and the
mountains beyond it. We continued steering along the shore, till the
morning of the 15th, the land still appearing hilly, but not so high as
it had been: The hills in general came quite down to the sea, and where
they did not, we saw instead of flats and mangrove land, immense groves
of cocoa-nut trees, reaching about a mile up from the beach: There the
plantations and houses commenced, and appeared to be innumerable. The
houses were shaded by groves of the fan-palm, or _borassus_, and the
plantations, which were inclosed by a fence, reached almost to the tops
of the highest hills. We saw however neither people nor cattle, though
our glasses were continually employed, at which we were not a little
surprised.

We continued our course, with little variation, till nine o'clock in the
morning of the 16th, when we saw the small island called _Rotte_; and at
noon the island _Semau_, lying off the south end of Timor, bore N.W.

Dampier, who has given a large description of the island of Timor, says,
that it is seventy leagues long, and sixteen broad, and that it lies
nearly N E. and S.W. I found the east side of it to lie nearest N.E. by
E. and S.W. by W., and the south end to lie in latitude 10 deg. 23' S.,
longitude 236 deg. 5' W. We ran about forty-five leagues along the east
side, and found the navigation altogether free from danger. The land
which is bounded by the sea, except near the south end, is low for two
or three miles within the beach, and in general intersected by salt
creeks: Behind the low land are mountains, which rise one above another
to a considerable height. We steered W.N.W. till two in the afternoon,
when, being within a small distance of the north end of Rotte, we hauled
up N.N.W. in order to go between it and Semau: After steering three