1767. or Stroomeh Point; about fifty-eight leagues.: The weather
<_____ 1 was now hazy, but happening fuddenly to clear up, we faw
Saturday 21. a with breakers, at the dillarice of about five or fix
miles, from the fouth to the north weft. Off the north end
of,;this fhoal we faw four hummocks -elofe together, which
we took for fmall iflands, and feven more from the S. 4 W.
to the W. 4.S.: whether thefe are really iflands',- or fome hills
on the ifland of Borneo, I could not determine. This fhoal
as certainly very dangerous, but may be avoided by going to
the weftward of Taba iflands, where the paflage. is clear and
broad. In the French chart of Monfieur D’Apres de Mande-
villette, publifhed in 1745, two fhoals are laid down, to the
eaftward, and a little to the north of thefe iflands: one of
them is called Vanloorif, and the other, on which are placed
two iflands, Harigs ; but thefe fhoals and iflands have certainly
no exiftence, as I turned through this part of the paC-
fage from fide to fide, and failed over the very fpot where
.they are fuppofed to lie. In the- fame chart feven fmall
iflands are alfo laid down within half a degree to the northward
of the line, and exadtly in the middle of the narrowed:
part of this paflage; but neither have thefe iflands any exiftence,
except upon paper, though I believe there-may be
fome fmall iflands clofe to the main land o f Borneo we
thought we had feen two, which we took to be thofe that
are laid down in the charts off Porto Tubo, but o f this I am
not certain. The fouthermoft and narroweft part o f this
paflage is about eighteen or twenty leagues broad, with
high lands on each fide. We continued labouring in it till
Friday 27. a j t h i before we crofied the line, fo that we were a fortnight
in failing eight and twenty leagues, the diftance from
the north entrance of the ftreight, which we made on the
14th. After we got to the fouthward of the'line, we found
a flight current fetting againft us to the northward, which
daily
daily increafed jj the weather was ftill unfettled, with much
wet the, winds were chiefly. S.,W.-and Wi,S. W- and very fel-
dom 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.utmoft effort.we
were fcarcely. able to do, our debility daily increafing by. the
falling fick of the few that were well, or the death of fome
among the many that were fick. Under thefe circumftances
we ufed our utmoft endeavours to get hold o f the land on
the Borneo fide, but were not able, and continued to ftruggle
with our misfortunes, till the 3d of December, when we fell
in with the fmall iflands and fhoals called the Little Patcr-
nofters, the fouthermoft of which, according to my account,
lies in latitude 2° 31' S. and the northermoft in 2^ 15' S. the
longitude of the northermoft I made 11-7" 12' E .: they bear
about S. E- 4 S. and N. W. 4 N. o f each other,' diftant eight
leagues, and between them are the others; the number o f
the whole is eight. They lie very near the Celebes fide of
the ftreight, and being unable either to weather them, or
get to the weftward of them, we were obliged to go between
them and the ifland. We had here tempeftuous weather and
contrary winds, with fudden and impetuous gufts, which,,
as we had not a number o f hands fufficient to bend the fails»
often endangered our mails and yards, and did great damage
to our fails and rigging, efpecially at this time, as w e
were obliged to carry all the fail we could to prevent our
falling into a deep bight, on the Celebes fhore. The ravages
of the feurvy were now univerfal, there not being one individual
among us that was free, and the winds and currents
being fo hard againft us, that we could neither get welling
nor fouthing to reach any place o f re fre lhm en tth e mind;
participated in the fuflerings o f the body, and a univerfal
defpondcncy
1767-
Noveniber..
F r i d a y 2%+
D e c e rn bers-
T h u r f d a y 3...
1