176s- fillips’ companies eat any thing elfe. We lay at Prince’s
1____ _ Ifland till the 19th, and during all that time wefubfifted
we ne. 19. w j1Qj j y Up 0 n the fame food, which was procured from the
inhabitants at a very reafonable rate. Having now taken
on board as much wood and water as we could flow, we
weighed, and got without Java Head before night: but by
this time a dangerous putrid fever had broken out among
us ; three o f my people had died, and many others now lay
in fo dangerous a condition that there were little hopes o f
their recovery: we did nor, however, bury one at Batavia,
which, notwithftanding our flay was fo fhorr, was thought
to be a very extraordinary inftance o f good fortune; and our
fick gradually recovered after we had been a week or two at
fea.
C H A P .
C H A P . XIV.
The Pajfage from Batavia to the Cape of Good Hope, and
from thence to England.
WE continued our courfe, without any event worthy o f 1766.
notice, except that one o f my belt men unhappily fell ,Febrna'y'.
overboard and was drowned, till Monday the 10th of February, Monday 10.
when, at fix o’clock in the morning, we faw the coaft of
Africa, bearing from N. N. W. to N. E. diftant about feven
leagues: it made in feveral h igh hills, and white fandy cliffs,
and its latitude was 340 15' S., longitude 210 45' E.; the variation
here was 3 3 ° W. and our depth of water fifty-three
fathom, with a bottom o f coarfe brown fand.
1 flood in for the land, and when I was within about two
leagues o f it, I faw a great fmoke riling from a fandy beach.
I imagined the fmoke to be made by the Hottentots; yet I
was aflonifhed at their chufing this part o f the coaft for their
refidence, for it confifted of nothing but fand banks as far
as we could fee, without the leaft bufh or a fingle blade of
verdure, and fo heavy a fea broke upon the coaft, that it
was impoflible to catch any fifh.
On Wednefday the 12th, at three o’clock in the afternoon, wedner. J2.
we were abreaft o f Cape Lagullas, from which the coaft lies
W. N. W. to the Cape o f Good Hope, which is diftant about
thirty leagues. The next day, we paired between Penguin Thurflay i3.
3 Ifland