1770. guages, particularly in Trench and Dutch) all regularly
■ ■ figned, in the name of the Governor and Council of the In-
Friday 5. dieSj by their fecretary: it contained nine queftions, very ill
exprefied, in the following terms:
“ 1. To what nation the fhip belongs., and its name ?
“ a. If it comes from Europe, or any other place?.
U 3, from what place it laftly departed from?
“ 4. Whereunto deligned to go ?
5. What and how many fhips of the Dutch Company
“ by departure from the laft fhore there layed, and their
“ names ?
“ 6. If one or more of fhefe fhips in company with this,
« is departed for this, or any other place i
“ 7. If during the voyage any particularities is happened
“ or feen?
“ 8. If not any fhips in fea, or the Streights o f Sunda, have
“ feen or hailed in, and which?
“ o. If any other news worth of attention, at the place
■“ from whence the fhip laftly departed, or during the voy-
■“ age, is happened?
“ B a t a v i a , in the Caftle.
“ By order of the Governor General, and the
“ Counfellors of India,
x‘ J. B r a n b e r Bungl, Sec.”
Of thefe queftions I anfwered only the firft and the fourth;
•which when the officer faw, he faid anfwers to the reft were
o f no confequence: yet he immediately added, that he muft
fend that very paper away to Batavia, and that it would be
there the next day at noon. I have particularly related this
incident,
incident, becaufe I have been credibly informed that it is but ■ i77°-
‘ • ' * • Odlober.
of late years that the Dutch have taken upon them to exa- u—
mine fhips that pafs through this Streight.
At ten o’clock the fame morning, we weighed, with a light
breeze at S. W .; but did little more than Item the current,
and about two o’clock anchored again under Bantam Point,
where we lay till nine; a light breeze then fpringing up at
S. E. we weighed and flood to the eaftward till ten o’clock the
next morning, when the current obliged us again to anchor Saturday s.
in twenty-two fathom, Pulababi bearing E. by S. ± S. diftant
between three and four miles. Having alternately weighed
and anchored feveral times, till four in the afternoon of the
7th, we then flood to the eaftward, with a very faint breeze Sunday 7.
at N. E. and pafTed Wapping Ifland, and the firft ifland to the
eaftward of i t ; when the wind dying away, we were carried
by the current between the firft and fiecond of the iflands
that lie to the eaftward of Wapping Ifland, where we were
obliged to anchor in thirty fathom, being very near a ledge
of rocks that run out from one of the iflands. At two the
next morning we weighed with the land wind at fouth, and Monday s,
flood out clear of the fhoal; but before noon were obliged
to come to again in twenty-eight fathom, near a fmall
ifland among thofe that are called the Thoufand Iflands,
which we did not find laid down in any chart. Pulo Pare at
this time bore E. N. E. diftance between fix and feven miles.
Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went afhore upon the ifland,
which they found not to be more than five hundred yards
long, and one hundred broad; yet there was a houfe upon
it, and a fmall plantation, where among other things was
the Palma Chrijli, from which the caftor oil is made in the
Weft Indies: they made a fmall addition to their collection
of plants, and fhot a bat, whofe wings when extended mea-
V ol. III. Q__q fured