vinced that profitable voyages might be made at any season of the year to New Guinea, Ceram, Goram, and the other islands of this vicinity. The articles brought for trade should consist of all kinds of coarse cutlery, callico, India cottons, beads, small looking glasses, tin ware, crockery of different colours, and all sorts of trinkets. Every thing should be coarse and cheap, and the colours should be gay. In return the trader would receive gold dust, pearls, turtle shells, mother of pearl, sago, birds of Paradise, nutmegs, honey, bees-wax, the edible birds nests, sandal wood, various kinds of beautiful wood for cabinet furniture, and a great abundance of the beach-le-mar, a kind of slug found every where on the shores of t' ese islands, and which the Asiatic epicures consider as a great luxury. A ship in this trade, must be well armed, and a good sailer in order to keep clear of the Dutch settlements. I have no doubt that twenty thousand dollars, thus invested in Europe or America, would furnish a return cargo to the amount of two, three, four, or even five hundred thousand dollars, taking China in the passage to sell what may have been obtained, and purchase again for the European or American market. The man engaged in this enterprise must be in all respects well qualified for it, and should have a ship of three hundred tons or upwards, fitted in the best manner, mounting fourteen guns, forty men, and well officered:

These seas afford plenty of good fish, and of many varieties. Water fowls also abound in them. The navigation is generally safe, but a good look-out must be always kept, and the lead and line must never be forgotten. It is not adviseable to work against the monsoon much at any time, as by studying the course of the winds, and the seasons when they blow, a better mode can always be adopted. Not regarding this, we were twice very near to a loss of our vessels on this coast. The first instance was after we had passed Revenge Straits. We stretched out westward the 9th and 10th of September, while the south east monsoon, in which direction we were bound, was blowing strong. We were kept at close haul on the wind; we were obliged to carry such a press of sail that we could do' little else than attend to the vessel and the sails; we were not sufficiently faithful to the lead and the line; and we did not keep a good look-out. Suddenly we came on a shoal, as we were standing off from land, and were considering ourselves on that account as safe. This obliged us to come to an anchor with

out having time to take in our sails, or to make preparation. We rode there till we could ride no longer; got our anchor, I can hardly tell how; ran back from the shoal; fell to leeward in a chain of small islands, and among sand banks; and had as much as we could do to get clear so far as to stand even westward in any direction. The second instance was when we were working north and west, out of the last gulf we explored. The wind continued strong from the north west, and compelled us to make long boards or tacks off shore at night. This appeared to us the most prudent way of navigating a vessel along a strange coast. We thus were without a long sand-bank, within which we had passed when we pursued our course south. On the 20th, at two o'clock in the morning, as we were making our board on shore, having been sounding in twenty two fathoms water, and on muddy bottom for some time, we suddenly found the water at nine fathoms on sand. The officer, who had the watch on deck, stepped into the cabin to inform the Commodore of this; but he had fortunately heard the quarter master sing the soundings. He sprang from his bed, put his head out of the quarter gallery window, and called to the man at the wheel, to hard to weather the helm, and wear ship. The helm was instantly put to the weather, the ship wore in only four fathoms water, and the breakers were within fifty yards of us.

The latitude of this reef is 5°, 40' south, and the longitude 137°, 52′ east. It is several miles long, and some parts are dry.

We concluded, the 20th of December, to yield the plan of returning by the way of Revenge Straits, or round the north west end of Sallawatty, to the Pelew Islands. We steered off the coast south and west; as the winds prevail so much from the north and west at that season of the year, we should never be able to make the passage in the north west monsoon, which would last as long on this coast as the north east monsoon blows in the China Sea, till the 1st of May. We sailed as near west as the winds would permit, till the 29th of December. We then saw a small island on the north east coast of New Holland, in latitude 11°, 39′ south, and longitude 135°, 22′ east. Some allowance must be made for a possible error of a few miles in the longitude, since I am not satisfied by my journal, which is the longitude by account, and which by the chronometer, in this day's reckoning. They do not however differ but a few miles, and the error cannot be of much consequence.

We left the coast of New Guinea in latitude 5° 40′ south, and longitude 137°, 52′ east. Crossing over to the coast of New Holland, and passing westward of Endeavor Straits, we never had less than twelve, nor more than forty fathoms water. The bottom was generally muddy. We were apprehensive that we should not be able to go to the west of the gulf of Carpentaria, a gulf much dreaded by seamen, because the wind makes so strong a draught inward, and it is so difficult to get out. But the wind favored us leeward much. We got

some, and the current did not set to the the advantage of the coast of New Holland, and the winds then were south and east, which had blown strong from the north west at New Guinea. We sailed along the north part of New Holland, some times in sight of the main land, and sometimes of small islands, to many of which we gave names, as we could not find them delineated on any chart. We were always in soundings from twelve to thirty fathoms, until the 7th of January, keeping in latitude 11° and 11° 30′ south, and in longitude from 135°, 12′ to 129°, 40′ cast. From the 7th to the 15th, we had soundings from thirty to sixty fathoms, growing deeper as we proceeded westward. The wind also came more from that quarter than it did on our first approaching the coast. The land tended more to the south as we advanced, and on the 15th, we were in latitude 12°, 20′ south, and longitude 126°, 42′ east. To the 20th we had from forty to seventy fathoms water, winds from the same point, and our latitude was 12°, 1′ south, and longitude 115°, 6' east. In a short run of fifty or sixty miles, we found no bottom with a line of ninety fathoms. The 22d, we crossed a shoal where we had but seven fathoms water in one spot, in latitude 11°, 4 south, and longitude 125°, 45′ east. This shoal, as we were informed at Timor, extends westward of that island, and is dry in many places. While we were coasting on the north side of New Holland, we passed several dangerous reefs, but discovered them in season to avoid the danger. The natives, whom we saw on the coast, appeared to be naked, were tall and stout, but we could not obtain an interview with them. We showed them cloth, and other articles at a distance, and made signs of friendship, but they were timid, and ran from their houses, taking the coverings with them, which were mats, or basket work. I presume that all the north side of that coast is peopled, and have no doubt that the lands are generally rich and fertile, judging from what we could see and learn. The wood was abundant

After crossing the reef the 22d, we went off soundings, and could find no bottom with a line of a hundred and thirty fathoms. The 29th we found bottom within three or four miles of Timor, in from twenty eight to thirty fathoms water, on coral rocks, and in latitude 10°, 14' south, and longitude 123° 46' east. We anchored in the passage between Rotta and Timor. We worked through the strait of Semau the 30th, and anchored off fort Concordia in eighteen fathoms water, half a mile from shorę. We saluted the fort with nine guns, which was returned with an equal number. The island of Rotta lies southwest of Timor, six or seven miles distant. In going northward between them, we passed two or three small islands on our larboard. We anchored under Semau, because it is much more safe riding there than off the town of Coupang. The water is very deep between Timor and the islands west of it, in the course which we took.

When we landed at Timor we found the same generous hospitality, which lieutenant Bligh and captain Edwards did. The latter had not been gone long, when we arrived. His fate we first learned at this place. We were met at our landing, by a number of the best people of the town, who conducted us to the governor's house, vying with each other in the offices of attention and kindness. A house, which had never yet been occupied, had been built at the publick expense for governor Vanjon, which he very politely offered to us for a residence during our stay in the island. We gratefully accepted the offer, and found the house spacious, surrounded by a handsome yard, and high trees growing in a square on each side of it. Some of these trees had been transplanted, as the gentlemen of the settlement informed us, when they were nearly a foot in diameter. The establishment was evidently an expensive one, and its appearance easily justified the accounts, which we had heard, of the care and cost bestowed upon it.

Commodore McClure made it his custom to take a house for the convenience of himself and his officers, in every port he visited, when he expected to spend any length of time. As he considered me the most acquainted with commercial affairs and the details of business, and having no regular purser on board, I was commissioned to purchase whatever was wanted for both vessels. This duty

I performed always, after we left Macao, till I quit the service. He was satisfied with my conduct, and thus gave me a greater op

portunity to be on shore than any other officer in the expedition enjoyed. The Dutch ladies and gentlemen called me Mr. Secretary, a title which they usually confered on the purser of a ship.

We took on shore whatever was necessary to keep house, and lived delightfully as long as we continued there. In every Dutch place, which we visited, we were treated with the same unreserved hospitality that we had experienced at Bouro and Amboyna. As we had been pretty severely tried in various dangers and hardships at New Guinea and the other islands, we considered ourselves as the fourth set of Englishmen who had arrived at Timor in want and distress. The Dutch said, that they believed all our vessels, which were unfortunate, paid them a visit. Lieutenant Eligh, after the mutiny against him in the Bounty by Fletcher Christian and others, was first in this catalogue of the unfortunate English at Timor. The second was a boat's crew, which sailed from Botany Bay, and traversed more than three thousand miles of the ocean in an open boat, on a very dangerous coast. The third instance was captain Edwards, who lost the Pandora, and who found the boat and crew from Botany Bay on his arrival.

When all the circumstances of this boat and its crew are considered, they will be thought as wonderful as those of Bligh or Edwards. According to Barrington's history, a man, named Bryant, with his wife and two children, taking with him seven other convicts, escaped from New South Wales, on the night of the 28th of March 1791, in a boat. The master of a Dutch snow furnished them with a chart and compass, and with these they hoped to reach Timor, as they actually did, but after many sufferings. When they landed on the island, they represented that they had been cast away on a reef southeast of it, and that all the ship's crew had perished except those in the boat. Bryant called himself captain, and said that his name was Martin. The only officer saved besides was the boatswain. The Dutch gave full credit to their story, and advanced money for their use, taking bills drawn on the English government. It is reported, and if true, the fact is greatly to the credit of English humanity, that provision has been made by law for men cast away, and in distress in a foreign land; that the bills of such persons shall be honored; and the claims of their benefactors allowed. But be this as it may, the government of Timor did advance money for the relief of Bryant and his party. He lived