ward of the Line, and exactly in the middle of the narrowest part
of this passage; but neither have these islands any existence, except
upon paper, though I believe there may-be some small islands close to
the main land of Borneo: We thought we had seen two, which we took to be
those that are laid down in the charts off Porto Tubo, but of this I am
not certain. The southermost and narrowest part of this passage is about
eighteen or twenty leagues broad, with high lands on each side. We
continued labouring in it till the 27th, before we crossed the Line, so
that we were a fortnight in sailing eight-and-twenty leagues, the
distance from the north entrance of the streight, which we made on the
14th. After we got to the southward of the Line, we found a slight
current setting against us to the northward, which daily increased: The
weather was still unsettled, with much wet: The winds were chiefly S.W.
and W.S.W. and very seldom farther to the northward than W.N.W. except
in the tornadoes, which grew more frequent and violent; and by them we
got nothing but hard labour, as they obliged us to hand all our sails,
which indeed with our utmost effort we were scarcely able to do, our
debility daily increasing by the falling sick of the few that were well,
or the death of some among the many that were sick. Under these
circumstances we used our utmost endeavours to get hold of the land on
the Borneo side, but were not able, and continued to struggle with our
misfortunes till the 3d of December, when we fell in with the small
islands and shoals called the Little Pater-nosters, the southermost of
which, according to my account, lies in latitude 2 deg. 31' S. and the
northermost in 2 deg. 15' S. the longitude of the northermost I made 117 deg.
12' E.: They bear about S.E. 1/4 S. and N.W. 1/4 N. of each other,
distant eight leagues, and between them are the others; the number of
the whole is eight. They lie very near the Celebes side of the straight,
and being unable either to weather them, or get to the westward of them,
we were obliged to go between them and the island. We had here
tempestuous weather and contrary winds, with sudden and impetuous gusts,
which, as we had not a number of hands sufficient to bend the sails,
often endangered our masts and yards, and did great damage to our sails
and rigging, especially at this time, as we were obliged to carry all
the sail we could to prevent our falling into a deep bight, on the
Celebes