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1770. September.

failed about two months before we arrived; and he is now to be distinguished from the natives only by his colour and his drefs, for he fits upon the ground, chews his beetle, and in every refpe&t has adopted their characters and manners: he has married an Indian woman of the island of Timor, who keeps his house after the fashion of her country, and he gave that as a reafon for not inviting us to vifit him, faying, that he could entertain us in no other manner than the Indians had done, and he spoke no language readily but that of the country.

The office of Mr. Frederick Craig is to inftruct the youth of the country in reading and writing, and the principles of the Chriftian religion; the Dutch having printed verfions of the New Teftament, a catechism, and several other tracts, in the language of this and the neighbouring iflands. Dr. Solander, who was at his houfe, faw the books, and the copy-books also of his fcholars, many of whom wrote a very fair hand. He boasted that there were no less than fix hundred Chrifftians in the township of Seba; but what the Dutch Christianity of thefe Indians may be, it is not perhaps very easy to guefs; for there is not a church, nor even a priest, in the whole island.

While we were at this place, we made several inquiries concerning the neighbouring islands, and the intelligence which we received is to the following effect:

A fmall island to the westward of Savu, the name of which we did not learn, produces nothing of any confequence but areca-nuts, of which the Dutch receive annually the freight of two floops, in return for prefents that they make to the islanders.

Timor is the chief, and the Dutch refidents on the other islands go thither once a year to pafs their accompts. The place is nearly in the fame ftate as in Dampier's time, the Dutch having there a fort and ftore-houses; and by Lange's account, we might there have been fupplied with every neceffary that we expected to procure at Batavia, falt provifions and arrack not excepted. But the Portuguese are still in poffeffion of feveral towns on the north fide of the ifland, particularly Laphao and Sefial.

About

September.

About two years before our arrival, a French fhip 1770. was wrecked the east coast of Timor; upon and after she had lain fome days upon the fhoal, a fudden gale broke her up at once, and drowned the captain, with the greatest part of the crew: thofe who got a-fhore, among whom was one of the lieutenants, made the beft of their way to Concordia; they were four days upon the road, where they were obliged to leave part of their company through fatigue, and the reft, to the number of about eighty, arrived at the town. They were fupplied with every neceffary, and fent back to the wreck, with proper affiftance, for recovering what could be fished up they fortunately got up all their bullion, which was in chefts, and feveral of their guns, which were very large. They then returned to the town, but their companions who had been left upon the road were miffing, having, as it was fuppofed, been kept among the Indians, either by perfuafion or force; for they are very defirous of having Europeans among them, to instruct them in the art of war. After a stay of more than two months at Concordia, their number was diminished nearly one half by fickness, in confequence of the fatigue and hardship which they had fuffered by the fhipwreck, and the furvivors were sent in a fmall veffel to Europe.

Rotte is in much the fame fituation as Savu; a Dutch factor refides upon it to manage the natives, and look after its produce, which confifts, among other articles, of fugar. Formerly it was made only by bruifing the canes, and boiling the juice to a syrup, in the fame manner as toddy; but great improvements have lately been made in preparing this valuable commodity. The three little iflands called the Solars, are alfo under the influence of the Dutch fettlement at Concordia: they are flat and low, but abound with provifions of every kind, and the middlemoft is faid to have a good harbour for shipping. Erde, another little ifland to the weftward of the Solars, is ftill in the hands of the Portuguefe, who have a good town and harbour on the north-eaft corner of it called Larntuca; they had formerly an harbour on the fouth fide of it, but that, being much inferior to Larntuca, has for fome time been altogether neglected.

The

1770 September.

The inhabitants of each of thefe little islands speak a language peculiar to themselves, and it is an object of Dutch policy to prevent, as much as poffible, their learning the language of each other. If they fpoke a common language, they would learn, by a mutual intercourse with each other, to plant fuch things as would be of more value to themselves than their prefent produce, though of lefs advantage to the Dutch; but their languages being different, they can communicaté no fuch knowledge to each other, and the Dutch fecure themselves the benefit of fupplying their feveral neceffities upon their own terms, which, it is reafonable to suppose, are not very moderate. It is probably with a view to this advantage that the Dutch never teach their own language to the natives of these iflands, and have been at the expence of tranflating the Teftament and catechisms into the different languages of each; for in proportion as Dutch had become the language of their religion, it would have be come the common language of them all.

To this account of Savu, I fhall only add a small fpecimen of its language, by which it will appear to have fome affinity with that of the South Sea iflands, many of the words being exactly the fame, and the numbers manifeftly derived from the fame fourfe.

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The legs,

Baibo.

Two,

Lhua.

1770.

Areca,

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September.

Beetle,

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Lime,

Aou.

Five,

Lumme.

A fifb hook,

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Tattow, the marks

on the skin,

rks} Tata.

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The fun,

Lodo.

Nine,

Saou.

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The moon, The fea,

Wurroo.

Ten,

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Water,

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Fire,

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Fan-palm,

Boaceree. 1000,

To die, To fleep, To rife, One,

Singooroo.

Singurungffeu.
Lhuangooroo.
Sing affu.
Setuppah.

Maate. 10,000, Selacuffa.
Tabudge. 100,000, Serata,
Tateetoo. 1,000,000 Sereboo.
Uffe,

In this account of the island of Savu it must be remembered, that except the facts in which we were parties, and the account of the objects which we had an opportunity to examine, the whole is founded merely upon the report of Mr. Lange, upon whofe authority alone therefore it must rest.

CHAP. XII.

The Run from the Island of Savu to Batavia, and an Account of the Transactions there while the Ship was refitting.

of N the morning of Friday the 21ft of September, Frid. 24

IN the

weftward, along the north fide of the island of Savu, and of the smaller that lies to the weftward of it, which at noon bore from us S. S. E. diftant two leagues. At four o'clock in the afternoon we discovered a small low island, bearing S. S. W. distant three leagues, which has no place in any chart now extant, at least in none that I have been able to procure: it lies in latitude 10° 47' S. longitude 238° 28′ W.

At

Saturd. 22.

1770. At noon on the 22d, we were in latitude 11° 10' S. September, longitude 240° 38' W. In the evening of the 23d, we found the variation of the needle to be 2° 44′ W. Sunday 23. as foon as we got clear of the islands we had conftantly a fwell from the fouthward, which I imagined was not caused by a wind blowing from that quarter, but by the fea being fo determined by the pofition of the coaft of New Holland.

Thurf. 27.

At noon on the 26th, being in latitude 10° 47′ S. longitude 249° 42′ W. we found the variation to be Wednef. 26. 3° 10' W. and our fituation to be twenty-five miles to the northward of the log; for which I know not how to account. At noon on the 27th our latitude, by obfervation, was 10° 51'S. which was agreeable to the log; and our longitude was 252° 11' W. We fteered Friday 28. N. W. all day on the 28th, in order to make the land 29. of Java; and at noon on the 29th, our latitude by obfervation was y° 31' S. longitude 254° 10' W. and in the morning of the 30th, I took into my poffeffion the log-book and journals, at least all I could find, of the officers, petty officers, and feamen, and enjoined them fecrecy, with refpect to where they had been.

Satur.

Sunday 30.

At feven in the evening, being in the latitude of Ja ́va Head, and not feeing any land, I concluded that we were too far to weftward; I therefore hauled up E. N. E. having before steered N. by E. In the night we had thunder and lightning: and about twelve o'clock, by the light of the flashes, we faw the land bearing eaft. I then tacked and ftood to the S. W. October. till four o'clock in the morning of the 1ft of October, Mond. 1. and at fix, Java Head, or the weft end of Java, bore S. E. by E. diftant five leagues: foon after we saw Prince's Ifland, bearing E. S. and at ten the Island of Cracatoa, bearing N. E. Cracatoa is a remarkably high-peaked island, and at noon it bore N. 40 E. diftant feven leagues.

I must now obferve, that, during our run from Savu, I allowed twenty minutes a-day for the wefterly current, which I concluded muft run ftrong at this time, efpecially off the coaft of Java, and I found that this allowance was equivalent to the effect of the current upon the fhip.

At

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