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extremity consists of three or four points, which bear eaft and weft of each other for about feven miles. They lie in latitude 5° 34′ N. longitude 126° 25′ E. according to my account. The variation here was one point east.

I paffed between these islands and the main, and ́ found the paffage good, the current fetting to the weftward. Dampier has placed his Bay and Savannah four leagues N. W. from the eastermost island, and there I fought it, as indeed I did on all the S. E. part of the ifland till we came to the little creek which ran up to the town.

All the fouthern part of Mindanao is extremely pleafant, with many spots where the woods had beef cleared for plantations, and fine lawns of a beautiful" verdure: this part alfo is well inhabited, as well as the neighbouring islands. Of the town I can give no ac count, as the weather was fo thick that I could not fee: it; neither could I fufficiently diftinguish the land to fet off the points, at which I was not a little mortified.

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When I came to open the land to the westward of the southermost point, I found it trend from that point W. N. W. and N. W. by W. forming firft a point at the distance of about seven or eight leagues, and then a very deep bay running fo far into the N. and N. E. that I could not see the bottom of it. The weftermoft point of this bay is low, but the land foon rifes again, and runs along to the N. W. by W. which feems to be the direction of this coaft, from the fouthermost point of the island towards the city of Mindanao.

To the weftward of this deep bay, the land is all flat, and in comparison of the other parts of the island, but thinly wooded. Over this flat appears a peak of ftupendous height, which rifes in the clouds like at tower. Between the entrance of this bay and the fouth point of the island there is another very high hill, the top of which has the funnel fhape of a volcano, but I did not perceive that it emitted either fire or smoke. It is poffible that this deep bay is that which Dampier mentions, and that it is misplaced by an error of the press; for, if instead of saying it bore N. W. four leagues from the eaftermost of the islands, he had faid it bore N. W. fourteen leagues from the westermost of the iflands,

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1767.

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1767. November.

iflands, it would correfpond well with his description, the bearings being the fame, and the land on the east fide of it high, and low on the weft: he is alfo nearly right in the latitude of his iflands, which he makes 5° 10' N. for probably fome parts of the fouthermoft of them may lie in that latitude; but as I did not go to the fouthward of them, this is only conjecture.

Between Hummock Island, which is the largest and westermost of them, and the islands to the eastward of it, which are all flat and even, is a paffage running north and fouth, which appears to be clear. The north caftermoft of these islands is fmall, low, and flat, with a white fandy beach all round it, and a great many trees in the middle. Eaft or north-east of this island there are shoals and breakers; and I faw no other appearance, of danger in thefe parts. Neither did I fee any of the islands which are mentioned by Dampier, and laid down in all the charts, near Mindanao in the offing; perhaps they are at a more remote distance than is commonly fuppofed; for without great attention navigators will be much deceived in this particular by the height of the land, as I have observed already. As I coafted this ifland, I found the current fet, very ftrong to the fouthward along the fhore, till I came to the fouth end of it, where I found it run N. W. and N. W. by W. which is nearly as the land trends. We had the winds commonly from S. W. to N. W. with light airs, frequent rain, and unfettled weather.

We now bid farewel to Mindanao, greatly difappointed in our hope of obtaining refreshments, which at first the inhabitants fo readily promised to furnish. We fufpected that there were Dutchmen, or at least Dutch partifans in the town; and that, having difcovered us to be English, they had dispatched an armed party to prevent our having any intercourfe with the natives, who arrived about two hours after our friendly conference, and were the people that defied us from shore.

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CHAP. IX.

The Passage from Mindanao to the Island of Celebes, with a particular Account of the Streight of Macaffar, in which many Errors are corrected.

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1767.

November.

FTER leaving Mindanao, I stood to the westward for the paffage between the islands of Borneo and Celebes, called the Streight of Macaffar, and made it on Saturday the fourteenth. I obferved, that Saturday 14. during the whole of this run we had a strong north wefterly current; but that while we were nearer to Mindanao than Celebes, it ran rather towards the north than the weft; and that when we came nearer to Celebes than we were to Mindanao, it ran rather towards the weft than the north. The land of Celebes on the north end runs along to the entrance of the paffage, is very lofty, and seems to trend away about W. by S. to a remarkable point in the paffage, which makes in a hummock, and which at first we took for an island. I believe it to be the same which in the French charts is called Stroomen Point, but 1 gave it the name of HUMMOCK POINT. Its latitude, according to my account, is 1° 20' N. longitude 121° 39′ E. and it is a good mark for those to know the paffage that fall in with the land coming from the eastward, who, if poffible, fhould always make this fide of the paffage. From Hummock Point the land trends more away to the fouthward, about S. W. by W. and to the fouthward of it there is a deep bay, full of iflands and rocks, which appeared to me to be very dangerous. Just off the point there are two rocks, which, though they are above water, cannot be feen from a ship till the is close to the land. To the eastward of this point, clofe to the fhore, are two iflands, one of them very flat, long and even, and the other fwelling into a hill: both thefe islands, as well as the adjacent country, are well covered with trees: I ftood close in a little to the eastward of them, and had no ground with an hundred fathoms, within half a mile of the fhore, which feemed to be rocky, A little to the westward of thefe iflands, we faw no lefs than sixty boats, which

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1767. November.

were fishing on fome fhoals that lie between them and Hummock Point. This part of the fhore appeared to be foul, and I think should not be approached without great caution. In this place I found the currents various and uncertain, fometimes fetting to the fouthward, and fometimes to the northward, and sometimes there was no current at all; the weather alfo was very unsettled, and fo was the wind; it blew, however, chiefly to the fouth and fouth west quarter, but we had fometimes fudden and violent gufts, and tornadoes from the N. W. with thunder, lightning, and rain: thefe generally lafted about an hour, when they were fucceeded by a dead calm, and the wind would afterwards fpring up fresh from the S. W. or S. S. W. which was right against us, and blow ftrong. From these appearances I conjectured that the shifting season had commenced, and that the weft monfoon would foon fet in, The ship failed fo ill that we made very little way; we frequently founded in this paffage, but could get no ground. Saturday21. On the 21ft of November, as we were standing towards Borneo, we made two fmall islands, which I judged to be the fame that in the French chart are called Taba Iflands; they are very fmall, and covered with trees. By my account they lie in latitude 1° 44′ N. longitude 7° 32′ W. of the fouth end of Mindanao, and are diftant from Hummock, or Stroomen Point, about fifty-eight leagues. The weather was now hazy, but happening fuddenly to clear up, we faw a fhoal with breakers, at the distance of about five or fix miles, from the fouth to the north-weft. Off the north end of this fhoal we faw four hummocks close together, which we took for small islands, and seven more from the S. W. to the W. S. whether these are really iflands, or fome hills on the island of Borneo, I could not determine. This shoal is certainly very dangerous, but may be avoided by going to the weftward of Taba Iflands, where the paffage is clear and broad. In the French chart of Monfieur d'Apres de Mandevillette, published in 1745, two fhoals are laid down, to the eastward, and a little to the north of these islands; one of them is called Vanloorif, and the other, on which are placed two iflands, Harigs; but these fhoals and iflands have certainly no existence, as I turned through

November.

this part of the paffage from fide to fide, and failed over, 1767. the very spot where they are fuppofed to lie. "In the fame chart seven small islands are alfo laid down within half a degree to the northward 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 fome small iflands close to the main land of Borneo; we thought we had feen 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 fouthermost and narrowest part

of this paffage is about eighteen or twenty leagues broad, with high lands on each fide. We continued labouring in it till the 27th, before we croffed the line, Friday 27. fo that we were a fortnight in failing eight and twenty leagues, the distance from the north entrance of the freight, which we made on the 14th.

After we got

to the fouthward of the line, we found a flight current fetting against us to the northward, which daily increased: the weather was ftill unfettled, with much wet; the winds were chiefly S. W. and W. S. W. and very feldom 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 fails, which indeed with our utmost efforts we were scarcely able to do, our debility daily increasing by the falling fick of the few that were well, or the death of fome among the many that were fick. Under these circumstances we used our utmost endeavours to get hold of the land on the Borneo fide, but were not able, and continued to ftruggle with our misfortunes till the 3d December. of December, when we fell in with the fmall lands Thurs. 3. and fhoals called the Little Paternofters, the fouthermost of which, according to my account, lies in latitude 2° 31'S. and the northermost in 2° 15′ S. the longitude of the northermoft I made 117° 12' E. they bear about S. E. S. and N. W. & N. of each other, diftant eight leagues, and between them are the others; the number of the whole is eight. They lie very near the Celebes fide of the freight, and being unable either to weather them, or get to the weftward of them, we were obliged between them and the island. We had here tempestuous

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