he weather was now exceedingly
tempestuous, and all navigation at an end from east to west till the
return of the eastern monsoon. On the same day two large sloops that
were bound to the eastward anchored here, and the next morning also a
large ship from Batavia, with troops on board for the Banda Islands; but
none of the crew of any of these vessels were suffered to speak to any
of our people, our boats being restrained from going on board them, and
theirs from coming on board us. As this was a mortifying restriction, we
requested Mr Swellingrabel to buy us some salt meat from the large ship;
and he was so obliging as to procure us four casks of very good European
meat, two of pork, and two of beef.

On the 28th a fleet of more than an hundred sail of the small country
vessels, called proas, anchored here; their burden is from twelve to
eighteen and twenty tons, and they carry from sixteen to twenty men. I
was told that they carried on a fishery round the island, going out with
one monsoon, and coming back with the other, so as always to keep under
the lee of the land: The fish was sent to the China market, and I
observed that all these vessels carried Dutch colours.

No event worthy of notice happened till the 18th of January, and then I
learnt by a letter from Macassar that the Dolphin had been at Batavia.
On the 28th, the secretary of the council, who had been sent hither with
Le Cerf, as we supposed to be a check upon the resident, was called to
Macassar. By this time our carpenter, having in a great degree recovered
his health, examined the state of our vessel, and to our great regret
she appeared to be very leaky: Our main yard also was found not only to
be sprung, but to be rotten and unserviceable. We got it down and
patched it up as well as we could, without either iron or a forge, so
that we hoped it would serve us till we got to Batavia, for no wood was
to be procured here of which a new one could be made. To our leaks very
little could be done, and we were therefore reduced to an entire
dependence upon our pumps.

On Friday the 19th of February, Le Cerf, the military officer who
commanded the soldiers on shore, was recalled, as it was said, to fit
out an expedition for the island of Bally; on the 7th of March, the
largest of our guard-boats, a sloop about forty-five tons, was ordered
back to Macassar with part of the soldiers; and on the 9th, the
resident, Mr Swellingrabel, received a letter from the gove