DAMPIER 9 S ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND.
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or a little more northerly and foutherly. We had kept fo nigh as to fee it, andat fartheft had not been above twenty leagues from it, but fometimes muchnearer; and it is'not probable that any current fhould fet direftly off from a land.A tide indeed may; but then the flood has the fame force to ftrike in upon thefhore, as the ebb to ftrike off from it: but a current muft have fet nearly along fhore,either eafterly or wefterly; and if any thing northerly or foutherly, it could be butvery little in comparifon of its eaft or weft courfe, on a coaft lying as this doth; whichyet we did not perceive. If therefore we were deceived by a current, it is very pro-bable that the land is here disjoined, and that there is a paffage through to the fouth-ward, and that the land from King William’s Cape to this place is an illand, feparatedfrom New Guinea by fome ftreight, as Nova Britannia is by that which we camethrough. But this being at belt but a probable conjecture, I lhall infill no farther
upon it.
The 14th we paffed by Scouten’s Illand, and Providence Illand, and found ftill ^very ftrong current fetting to the north-weft. On the 17th we faw a high mountainon the main, that fent forth great quantities of fmoke from its top : this volcano wedid not fee in our voyage out. In the afternoon we difcovered King William’s Illand,and crowded all the fail we could to get near it before night, thinking to lie to theeaftward of it till day, for fear of fome Ihoals that lie at the weft end of it. Beforenight we got within two leagues of it, and having a fine gale of wind and a light moon,I refolved to pafs through in the night, which I hoped to do before twelve o’clock, «the gale continued; but when we came within two miles of it, it fell calm; yet after-wards by the help of the current, a fmall gale, and our boat, we got through beforeday. In the night we had a very fragrant fmell from the illand. By morning-ligh £we were got two leagues to the weftward of it; and then were becalmed all the morn-ing ; and met fuch whirling tides, that when we came into them, the lhip turned quit®round: and though fometimes we had a fmall gale of wind, yet Ihe could not fo®;the helm when lhe came into thefe whirlpools: neither could we get from among'tthem, till a’ brilk gale fprung up; yet we drove not much any way, but whirled roundlike a top. And thofe whirlpools were not conftant to one place but drove aboutftrangely ; and fometimes we faw among them large ripplings of the water, like gr ea£over-falls, making a fearful noife. I fent my boat to found, but found no ground. _
The 18th Cape Mabo bore fouth, diftance nine leagues j by which account it h e ®in the latitude of 50' fouth, and meridian diftance from Cape St. George one thoufondtwo hundred and forty-three miles. St. John’s Ifle lies forty-eight miles to the eaft °jCape St. George; which being added to the diftance between Cape St. George andCape Mabo, makes one thoufand two hundred and ninety-one meridional parts; ^hicwas the furtheft that I was to the eaft. In my outward-bound voyage I made meridiandiftance between Cape Mabo and Cape St. George, one thoufand two hundred an ^ninety miles; and now in my return, but one thoufand two hundred and forty-three,which is forty-feven lhort of my diftance going out. This difference may p r °h a |be occafioned by the ftrong weftern current which we found in our return, whienallowed for after I perceived it; and though we did not difcern any current whenwent to the eaftward, except when near the iflands, yet it is probable we had_°®againft us, though we did not take notice of it becaufe of the ftrong wefterly v^n ^King William’s Illand lies in the latitude of 21' fouth, and may be feen diftincHy 0Cape Mabo. .
In the evening we paft by Cape Mabo; and afterwards fleered away fouth-eaft h aeaft, keeping along the fliore, which here trends fouth-eafteriy. The next morn &