And as there may be hence iome reafon to conclude, that there
is a chain of 1 (lands, fpreading. themfelves Southward, towards the
unknown boundaries o f the Pacific Ocean, o f which the Ladrones
are only a part; fo it appears from the Spanijh chart, hereafter in-
ferted, that the fame chain is extended from the northward of the
Ladrones to Japan: Whence in this light the Ladrones will be
only one fmall portion o f a range o f Hands reaching from Japan,
perhaps to the unknown fouthern Continent. After this fliort
account o f thefe places, I (hall now return to the profecution of
out voyage.
C H A P .
C H A P . VI.
Front ’Tinian to Macao.
ON the 2ift of October, in the evening, we took our leave
o f the Hand of Tinian, -fleering the proper courfe for Macao
in China. The eaftern monfoon was now, we reckoned,
fairly fettled ; and we bad a conftant gale blowing right
a-ftern : So that we generally ran from forty to fifty leagues a flay.
But we had a large hollow fea purfuing us, which occafioned the
ihip to labour much ; whence our leak was augmented, and we
received great damage in our rigging, which by this time was
grown very rotten : However, our people were now happily in
full health j fo that there were no complaints of fatigue, but all
went through their attendance on the pumps, and every other duty
o f the (hip, with eafe and chearfulnefs.
Before we left Tinian we fwept for our beft and fmall bower,
and employed the Indians to dive in fearch of them ; shut all to no
purpofe : Hence, except our prize anchors, which were flowed in
the hold, and were too light to be depended on, we had only our
(heet-anchor le ft: And that being obvioufly much too heavy for a
coafting anchor, we were under great concern how we (hould
manage on the coaft of China, where we were entire ftrangers, and
where we (hould doubtlefs be frequently under the neceffity of
coming to an anchor. But we at length removed the difficulty, by
fixing two o f our largeft prize anchors into one flock, and placing
between their (hanks two guns, four pounders : This we intended
to ferve as a beft bower -: And a third prize-anchor being in like
manner joined to our ftream anchor, with guns between them,
made us a (mail bower; fo that befides our (heet-anchor, we had
again two others at our bows, one of which weighed 3900, and
the other 2900-pounds.
Y y The