DAMPIEr’s ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND.

476

made way very {lowly; but before night got through. By a good obfervation wefound that the fouth-eaft point of Omba lies in latitude 8° 25'. In my drafts it islaid down in 8° 10'. My true courfe from Babao, is eaft, 25 0 north, diftance onehundred eighty-three miles. We founded feveral times wfien near Omba, but had noground. On the north-eaft point of Omba we faw four or five men, and a little furtherthree pretty houfes on a low point, but did not go aftiore.

At five this afternoon we had a tornado, which yielded much rain, thunder, andlightning; yet we had but little wind. The 24th in the morning we catched a largefhark', which gave all the {hip’s company a plentiful meal.

The 27th we faw the Burning Ifland ; it lies it latitude 6° 3 6' fouth ; it is high, andbut fmall; it runs from the fea a little Hoping towards the top, which is divided in themiddle into two peaks, between which ifiued out much fmoak : I have not feen morefrom any volcano. I faw no trees ; but the north fide appeared green, and the reftlooked very barren.

Having palled the Burning Ifland, I fhaped my courfe for two iflands, called TurtleIfles, which lie north-eaft-by-eaft a little eafterly, and diftant about fifty leagues fromthe Burning Ifle : I fearing the wind might veer to the eaftward of the north, fteeredtwenty leagues north-eaft, then north-eaft-by-eaft. On the 28th we faw two fmall lowiflands, called Lucca-parros, to the north of us. At noon I accounted myfelf twentyleagues fhort of the Turtle Ifles.

The next morning, being in the latitude of the Turtle Iflands, we looked out {harpfor them, but faw no appearance of any ifland till eleven o’clock, when we faw anifland at a great diftance. Atfirft we fuppofed it might be one of the Turtle Ifles : butit was not laid down true, neither in latitude nor longitude from the Burning Ifle, no*from the Luca-parros, which laft I took to be a great help to guide me, they being laiddown very well from the Burning Ifle, and that likewife in true latitude and diftancefrom Omba, fo that I could not tell what to think of the ifland now in fight, we hav-ing had fair weather, fo that we could not pafs by the Turtle Ifles without feeing them*and this in fight was much too far off for them. We found variation 1° 2' eaft. 1 °the afternoon I fteered north-eaft-by-eaft for the iflands that we faw. At two o’clockI went and looked over the fore-yard, and faw two iflands at much greater diftancethan the Turtle Iflands are laid down in my drafts, one of them was a very highpqaked mountain, cleft at top, and much like the Burning Ifland that we paffed by»but bigger and higher ; the other was a pretty long high flat ifland. Now I was certainthat thefe were not the Turtle Iflands, and that they could be no other than theBandeIfles, yet we fteered in to make them plainer. At three o’clock we difcovered anotherfmall flat ifland to the north-weft of the others, and faw a great deal of fmoak rife fromthe top of the high ifland. At four we faw other fmall iflands, by which I was no^affured that thefe were the Bande Ifles there. At five I altered my courfe and fteeredeaft, and at eight, eaft-fouth-eaft, becaufe I would not be feen by the inhabitants of thofeiflands in the morning. We had little wind all night; and in the morning, as foonit was light, we faw another high peaked ifland : at eight it bore fouth-fouth-eaft hair*eaft, diftance eight leagues : and this I knew to be Bird Ifle. It is laid down in ourdrafts in latitude 5 0 g' fouth, which is too far foutherly by twenty-feven miles, a c 'cording to our obfervation ; and the like error in laying down the Turtle Iflands mig* 11be the occafion of our miffing them.

At night I fhortened fail, for fear of coming too nigh fome iflands, that ftre {caway bending like a half moon from Ceram towards Timor, and which in my court®I muft of neceflity pafs through. The next morning betimes I faw them, and