The disposition of the people, as far as we could discover it, is good. They dealt with us very honestly, except, like all other Indians, and the itinerant retailers of fish in London, they asked sometimes twice, and sometimes thrice as much for their commodities as they would take. As what they brought to market belonged, in different proportions, to a considerable number of the natives, and it would have been difficult to purchase it in separate lots, they found out a very easy expedient, with which every one was satisfied: They put all that was bought of one kind, as plantains, or Cocoa-nuts, together, and when we had agreed for the heap, they divided the money that was paid for it among those of whose separate property it consisted, in a proportion corresponding with their contributions. Sometimes, indeed, they changed our money, giving us 240 doits, amounting to five shillings, for a Spanish dollar, and ninety-six, amounting to two shillings, for a Bengal rupee.

They all speak the Malay language, though they have a language of their own, different both from the Malay and the Javanese. Their own language they call Catta Gunung, the language of the mountains; and they say that it is spoken upon the mountains of Java, whence their tribe originally migrated, first to Mew Bay, and then to their present station, being driven from their first settlement by tygers, which they found too numerous to subdue.

We now made the best of our way for the Cape of Good Hope, but the seeds of disease which we had received at Batavia began to appear with the most threatening symptoms in dysenteries and slow fevers. Lest the water which we had taken in at Prince's Island should have any share in our sickness, we purified it with lime, and we washed all parts of the ship between decks with vinegar, as a remedy against infection. Mr Banks was among the sick, and for some time there was no hope of his life. We were very soon in a most deplorable situation; the ship was nothing better than an hospital, in which those that were able to go about were too few to attend the sick, who were confined to their hammocks; and we had almost every night a dead body to commit to the sea. In the course of about six weeks, we buried Mr Sporing, a gentleman who was in Mr Banks's retinue, Mr Parkinson, his natural history painter, Mr Green, the astronomer, the boatswain, the carpenter and his mate, Mr Monkhouse, the midshipman, who had fo

thered

thered the ship after she had been stranded on the coast of New Holland, our old jolly sail-maker and his assistant, the ship's cook, the corporal of the marines, two of the carpenter's crew, a midshipman, and nine seamen ; in all three-andtwenty persons, besides the seven that we buried at Batavia. On Friday the 15th of March, about ten o'clock in the morning, we anchored off the Cape of Good Hope, in seven fathom, with an oozy bottom. The west point of the bay, called the Lion's Tail, bore W.N.W., and the castle S.W., distant about a mile and a half. I immediately waited upon the governor, who told me that I should have every thing the country afforded. My first care was to provide a proper place ashore for the sick, which were not a few; and a house was soon found, where it was agreed they should be lodged and boarded at the rate of two shillings a-head per day.

Our run from Java Head to this place afforded very few subjects of remark that can be of use to future navigators; such as occurred, however, I shall set down. We had left Java Head eleven days before we got the general south-east trade-wind, during which time we did not advance above 5o to the southward, and 3° to the west, having variable light airs, interrupted by calms, with sultry weather, and an unwholesome air, occasioned probably by the load of vapours which the eastern trade-wind and westerly monsoons bring into these latitudes, both which blow in these seas at the time of the year when we happened to be there. The easterly wind prevails as far as 10° or 12° S., and the westerly as far as 6° or 8°; in the intermediate space the winds are variable, and the air, I believe, always unwholesome; it certainly aggravated the diseases which we brought with us from Batavia, and particularly the flux, which was not in the least degree checked by any medicine, so that whoever was seized with it considered himself as a dead man; but we had no sooner got into the trade-wind, than we began to feel its salutary ef

fects:

2 In the Biog. Brit. where a summary of Cook's Voyages is given, an observation is made on this melancholy part of the narrative, which the reader may not be displeased to see copied here. "It is probable that these calamitous events, which could not fail of making a powerful impression on the mind of Lieutenant Cook, might give occasion to his turning his thoughts more zealously to those methods of preserving the health of seamen, which he afterwards pursued with such remarkable success." These methods will be amply detailed hereafter.-E.

fects: We buried indeed several of our people afterwards, but they were such as had been taken on board in a state so low and feeble that there was scarcely a possibility of their recovery. At first we suspected that this dreadful disorder might have been brought upon us by the water that we took on board at Prince's Island, or even by the turtle that we bought there; but there is not the least reason to believe that this suspicion was well-grounded, for all the ships that came from Batavia at the same season, suffered in the same degree, and some of them even more severely, though none of them touched at Prince's Island in their way.

A few days after we left Java, we saw boobies about the ship for several nights successively, and as these birds are known to roost every night on shore, we thought them an indication that some island was not far distant; perhaps it might be the island of Selam, which, in different charts, is very differently laid down both in name and situation.

The variation of the compass off the west coast of Java, is about 3° W., and so it continued without any sensible variation, in the common track of ships, to the longitude of 288° W., latitude 22° S., after which it increased apace, so that in longitude 295°, latitude 23°, the variation was 10° 20 W.: In seven degrees more of longitude, and one of latitude, it increased two degrees; in the same space farther to the west, it increased five degrees: In latitude 28°, longitude 314°, it was 24°, 20°, in latitude 29°, longitude 317°, it was 26° 10′, and was then stationary for the space of about ten degrees farther to the west; but in latitude 34°, longitude 333°, we observed it twice to be 28°4 W., and this was its greatest variation, for in latitude 35°, longitude 337°, it was 24°, and continued gradually to decrease; so that off Cape Anguillas it was 22° 30′, and in Table Bay 20° 30′ W.

As to currents, it did not appear that they were at all considerable, till we came within a little distance of the meridian of Madagascar; for after we had made 52° of longitude from Java Head, we found, by observation, that our error in longitude was only two degrees, and it was the same when we had made only nineteen. This error might be owing partly to a current setting to the westward, partly to our not making proper allowances for the setting of the sea before which we run, and perhaps to an error in the assumed longitude of Java Head. If that longitude is erro

neous,

neous, the error must be imputed to the imperfection of the charts of which I made use in reducing the longitude from Batavia to that place, for there can be no doubt but that the longitude of Batavia is well determined. After we had passed the longitude of 307°, the effects of the westerly currents began to be considerable; for, in three days, our error in longitude was 1°5': The velocity of the current kept increasing as we proceeded to the westward, in so much, that for five days successively after we made the land, we were driven to the S. W. or S. W. by W., not less than twenty leagues a-day; and this continued till we were within sixty or seventy leagues of the Cape, where the current set sometimes one way, and sometimes the other, though inclining rather to the westward.

After the boobies had left us, we saw no more birds till we got nearly abreast of Madagascar, where, in latitude 27° S., we saw an albatross, and after that time we saw them every day in great numbers, with birds of several other sorts, particularly one about as big as a duck, of a very dark brown colour, with a yellowish bill. These birds became more numerous as we approached the shore, and as soon as we got into soundings, we saw gannets, which we continued to see as long as we were upon the bank which stretches off Anguillas to the distance of forty leagues, and extends along the shore to the eastward, from Cape False, according to some charts, one hundred and sixty leagues. The real extent of this bank is not exactly known; it is, however, useful as a direction to shipping when to haul in, in order to make the land.

While we lay here, the Houghton Indiam an sailed for England, who, during her stay in India, lost by sickness between thirty and forty men; and when she left the Cape, had many in a helpless condition with the scurvy. Other ships suffered in the same proportion, who had been little more than twelve months absent from England; our sufferings, therefore, were comparatively light, considering that we had been absent near three times as long.

Having lain here to recover the sick, procure stores, and perform several necessary operations upon the ship and rigging, till the 13th of April, I then got all the sick on board, several of whom were still in a dangerous state, and

having

having taken leave of the governor, I unmoored the next morning, and got ready to sail.3

On the morning of the 14th we weighed and stood out of the bay; and at five in the evening anchored under Pen-' quin, or Robin Island: We lay here all night, and as I could not sail in the morning for want of wind, I sent a boat to the island for a few trifling articles which we had forgot to take in at the Cape. But as soon as the boat came near the shore, the Dutch hailed her, and warned the people not to land, at their peril, bringing down at the same time six men armed with muskets, who paraded upon the beach. The officer who commanded the boat not thinking it worth while to risk the lives of the people on board for the sake of a few cabbages, which were all we wanted, returned to the ship. At first we were at a loss to account for our repulse, but we afterwards recollected, that to this island the Dutch at the Cape banish such criminals as are not thought worthy of death, for a certain number of years, proportioned to the offence, and employ them as slaves in digging lime-stone, which, though scarce upon the continent, is in plenty here; and that a Danish ship, which by sickness had lost great part of her crew, and had been refused assistance at the Cape, came down to this island, and sending her boat ashore, secured the guard, and took on board as many of the criminals as she thought proper to navigate her home: We concluded therefore that the Dutch, to prevent the rescue of their criminals in time to come, had given order to their people here to suffer no boat of any foreign nation to come ashore.

On the 25th, at three o'clock in the afternoon, we weighed, with a light breeze at S. E., and put to sea. About an hour afterwards, we lost our master, Mr Robert Mollineux, a young man of good parts, but unhappily given up to intemperance, which brought on disorders that put an end to his life.

We proceeded in our voyage homeward without any remarkable

3 Some remarks concerning the Cape of Good Hope are now given in the original. They are omitted here, as being only supplementary to other accounts, and because we shall elsewhere have an opportunity of drawing the reader's attention very fully to the subject. The same thing may be said respecting some notices of St Helena, contained in this section. Whatever is of value in either of these accounts, will be had recourse to on another occasion.-E.