A VOYAGE TO BORNEO.

15°

much time in beating to the windward, but in vain, for we met with very hard gales:therefore I tacked to the north-weft ward on the 19 th of February, having the wind atfouth-weft and fouth-weft-by-weft, and on the 21ft following, in the latitude of eighteendegrees fouth, having gained two hundred and feventy miles to the weftward of thefouth-eaft end of Java, I met with uncertain winds: and on the 23d I met with thefixed fouth-eaft trade wind, ftout gales, which held us till the 24th of March follow-ing, to the latitude of thirty-three degrees forty-eight minutes fouth, and four thoufandthree hundred and twenty-three miles to the weft of the fouth-eaft end of Java. Thismade us amends for the former lofs of time, running us to the rate of one hundred andforty to one hundred and feventy miles in twenty-four hours time.

Now our fair trade-wind had left us, and we had nothing but uncertainty to dependon, being feven hundred and eighty miles diftant from the Cape ; and our waterfalling fhort, we were forced to allow but a quart each man for twenty-four hours.On the 4th of April we came to an anchor in Table-Bay, at the Cape of Good Hope ,in the latitude of thirty degrees fouth, and longitude from London fixteen degreesthirty minutes. Our men were moft of them ficlc and down with the lcurvy, occa-fioned by the length of our paffage, fo that we had fcarce men enough to furl the failsand bring the fhip to an anchor without great trouble and rifle. We fpent here thirty-eight days, being obliged to have our fick men afhore ; however the repairing ourfhip, which had buffered very much in beating betwixt the ftreights of Bally and NewHolland, and alfo re-victualling our fhip, was the occafion of our tarrying here fo long.During our ftay here I buried my chief mate, which was no fmall lofs to us, for heway a very good officer, and my cooper.

This place for its pleafantnefs, fertility, wholefome air, and convenient fituation forthe fupply of both homeward and outward bound Eaft India fhips, is not to be paral-leled, whereof the Dutch to whom it belongs are not a little proud. The town is fituatedon a fmall afeent on the fide of the bay, and confifts of about two or three hundredhoufes built with ftone, about two or three ftories high, having pleafant rows of treesbefore the doors. There was formerly a drain of water that ran through the town :this they have lately turned into two canals, and built the fides up with ftone, which addsmuch to the beauty of the town. Here is one large church, a handfome hofpital, and■a pretty large caftle, garrifoned and kept in good repair, which commands the bay : it isnot very ftrong, but fufficient to anfwer the defign it was built for. The governor has ahandfome dwelling-houfe therein. At the upper part of the town is a very large finegarden belonging to the Dutch Eaft India Company, which is furrounded partly with awall, and partly with a ditch, confiftingof many very beautiful walks, and feveral banks andcanals, which have indeed been lately negle&ed, and are much run to ruin, but the thenprefent governor was about repairing them. Here is great abundance of good fruit, andvariety of phyfic-plants and trees, as aloes of different forts, dragons-blood, and camphire-trees, with feveral others paft my obfervation. In this garden is likewife a houfe, built forthat purpofe, wherein is kept a collection of the fkins of a multitude of ftrange beaftswhich Africa is famous for, fo artificially and nicely fluffed, that at firft you would befurprifed at them, and would believe them to be really live creatures, viz. lions, tigers,leopards, elephants, rhinocerofes, wild cats, antelopes of feveral forts; many largeunfizeable deer, and a creature called a ftriped afs, which they fay can never be tamed,though taken young: it is a beautiful creature, refembling a fine little horfe with anafs’s tail, and is ftriped and coloured like a tiger. There is alfo an amphibious creature,called by them manitee, or a fea-cow, which when alive could weigh no lefs than twenty-five or thirty hundred weight. She comes up the frefh rivers in the night-time, and

8 then