ft6 2 L I E U T E N A N T C O O K ’ S V O Y A G E
. 1770. Dampier entered with , his boat, for it did not feem to have
September. . _
'—to— -/ fufficient depth of water for a fhip. The land here anfwered
Be‘ ,2- well to the description that he has given of it: clofe to the
beach it was covered with high fpiry trees, which he mentions
as having the appearance of pines; behind thefe there
feemed to be fait water creeks, and many mangroves, inter-
fperfed however with cocoa-nut trees: the flat land at the
beach appeared in fome places to extend inward two or three
miles before the rife of the firft h ill; in this part, however,
we faw no appearance of plantations or houfes, but great
fertility, and from the number of fires, we judged that the
place muft be well peopled.
When we had approached within a mile and an half of
the fhore, we tacked and flood off", and the extreams of the
coafi then extended from N. E. by E. to W. by S. .4 S. The
fouth wefterly extremity was a low point, diftant from us
about three leagues. While we were ftanding in for the
fhore, we founded feveral times, but had no ground till we
came within about two miles and a half, and then we had
five and twenty fathom, with a foft bottom. After we had
tacked, we flood off till midnight, with the wind at S.; we
then tacked and flood two hours to the wefiward, when the
wind veered to S. W. and W. S. W. and we then flood to the
ThitrEay rj, fouthward again. In the morning, we found the variation
to be 1“ 10' W. by the amplitude, and by the azimuth r ° 27'..
At noon, our latitude was, by obfervation, 9° 45' Si our longitude
234* 12' W.; we were then about feven leagues
diftant from the land, which extended from N. 31 E. to
W. S.W. i W.
With light land breezes from W. by N. for a few hours ini
a morning, and fea breezes from S. S. W. andS. we advanced
Friday 14. to the weftward but flowly. At noon on the 14th, we were
between fix and feven leagues from the land, which extended
tended from N. by E. to S. 78 W .; we ftill faw fmoke in
many places by day, and fire by night, both upon the low j-v1-— <
land and the mountains beyond it. We continued fleering y *
along the fhore, till the morning of the 13th, the land ftill Saturday.t.
appearing hilly, but not fo high as it had been: the hills in
general came quite down to the fea, and where they did not,
we faw inftead of flats and mangrove land, immenfe groves
of cocoa-nut trees, reaching about a mile up from the beach:
there the plantations and houfes commenced, and appeared
to be innumerable. The houfes were fhaded by groves of
the fan palm, or borajjiu, and the plantations, which were
inclofed by a fence, reached almoft to the tops of the higheft
hills. We faw however neither people nor cattle, though
our glaffes were continually employed, at which we were
not a little furprifed.
We continued our courfe, with little variation, till nine
o’clock in the morning of the 16eh, when we faw the fmall Sunday 16,
ifland called R o t t e ; and at noon, the ifland S em a u , lying
off the fouth end of Timor, bore N.W.
' Dampier, who has given a large defcription of the ifland
of Timor," fays, that it is feventy leagues long, and fixteen
broad, and that it lies nearly N. E. and S.W. I found the
eaft fide of it to lie neareft N. E. by E. and S. W. by W. and the
fouth end to lie in latitude 1 o° 23' S., longitude 236° 3' W.
We ran about forty-five leagues along the eaft fide, and found
the navigation altogether free from danger. The land
which is bounded by the fea, except near the fouth end, is
low for two or three miles within the beach, and in general
interfered by fait creeks: behind the low land are mountains,
which rife one above another to-a confiderable height.
We fleered W.N.W. till two in the afternoon, When, being
•within a fmall diftance o f the north end of Rotte, we hauled
up