DAMPIER’s ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND. 481

If they found good anchoring; we were then {landing to the fouthward, with a finebreeze. As foon as they fired, I tacked and flood in ; they told me they had fiftyfathom when they fired. I tacked again, and made all the fail I could to get out,being near fome rocky iflands and fhoals to leeward of us. The breeze increafed,and I thought we were out of danger, but having a fhoal juft by us, and the wind fallingagain, I ordered the boat to tow us, and by their help we got clear from it. We had aftrong tide fetting to the weftward.

At one o’clock, being paft the flioal, and finding the tide fetting to the weftward, Ianchored in thirty-five fathom coarfe fand, with fmall coral and fhellsi Being nearedto Cockle Illand, I immediately fent both the boats thither, one to cut wood, and theother to fifh. At four in the afternoon, having a fmall breeze at fouth-fouth-weft, Imade a fign for my boats to come on board. They brought fome wood, and a* fewfmall cockles, none of them exceeding ten pounds weight, whereas the {hell of thegreat one weighed feventy-eight pounds ; but it was now high water, and thereforethey could get no bigger: they alfo brought on board fome pigeons, of which we foundplenty on all the iflands where we touched in thefe feas : alfo in many places we fawmany large bats, but killed none, except thofe I mentioned at Pulo Sabuda. As ourboats came aboard, we weighed and made fail, fleering eaft-fouth-eaft as long as thewind held. In the morning we found we had got four or five leagues to the eaft ofthe place where we weighed. We flood to and fro till eleven ; and finding that weloft ground, anchored in forty-two fathom coarfe gravelly fand, with fome coral. Thismorning we thought we faw a fail.

In the afternoon I went afhore on a fmall woody ifland, about two leagues from us.Here I found the greateft number of pigeons that ever I faw either in the Eaft orWeft Indies, and fmall cockles in the fea round the ifland, in fuch quantities that we• might have laden the boat in an hour’s time. Thefe were not above ten or twelvepounds weight. We cut fome wood, and brought off cockles enough for all the fliip’scompany, but having no fmall {hot, we could kill no pigeons. I returned about fouro’clock, and then my gunner and both mates went thither, and in lefs than three quar-ters of an hour they killed and brought off ten pigeons. Here is a tide: the flood fetsweft and the ebb eaft, but the latter is very faint, and but of fmall continuance ; andfo we found it ever fince we came from Timor : the winds we found eafterly, betweennorth-eaft and eaft-fouth-eaft, fo that if thefe continue, it is impoflible to beat fartherto the eaftward on this coaft againft wind and current. Thefe eafterly winds increafedfrom the time we were in the latitude of about 2° fouth, and as we drew nigher the linethey hung more eafterly : and now being to the north of the continent of New Guinea ,where the coaft lies eaft and weft, I find the trade-wind here at eaft, which yet inhigher latitudes is ufually at north-north-weft and north-weft ; and fo I did expert themhere, it being to the fouth of the line.

The 7th, in the morning, I fent my boat alhore on Pigeon Ifland, and ftaid tillnoon. In the afternoon my men returned, brought twenty-two pigeons, and manycockles, fome very large, fome fmall: they alfo brought one empty {hell, that weighedtwo hundred and fifty-eight pounds.

At four o’clock we weighed, having a fmall wefterly wind and a tide with us ; atfeven in the evening we anchored in forty-two fathom, near King William’s Ifland,where I went alhore the next morning, drank His Majefty’s health, and honoured itwith his name. It is about two leagues and a half in length, very high, and extraor-dinarily well clothed with woods ; the trees are of divers forts, mod unknown to us,but all very green and flourifhing j many of them had flowers, fome white, fome pur-

v ol. xi. 3 Q > pie,