We proceeded however in rigging the ship, and getting water and stores aboard: the water we were obliged to procure from Batavia, at the rate of six shillings and eight-pence a leager, or one hundred and fifty gallons.
About the 26th, the westerly monsoon set in, which generally blows here in the night from the S. W. and in the day from the N. W. or N. For some nights before this, we had very heavy rain, with much thunder; and in the night between the 25th and 26th, such rain as we had seldom seen, for near four hours without intermission. Mr. Bank’s house admitted the water in every part like a sieve, and it ran through the lower rooms in a stream that would have turned a mill; he was by this time sufficiently recovered to go out, and, upon his entering Batavia the next morning, he was much surprised to see the bedding every where hung out to dry.
The wet season was now set in, though we had some intervals of fair weather. The frogs in the ditches, which croak ten times louder than any frogs in Europe, gave notice of rain by an incessant noise that was almost intolerable, and the gnats and musquitos, which had been very troublesome even during the dry weather, were now become innumerable, swarming from every plash of water like bees from a hive; they did not, however, much incommode us in the day, and the stings, however troublesome at first, never continued to itch above half an hour, so that none of us felt in the day, the effects of the wounds they had received in the night.
On the 8th of December, the ship being perfectly refitted, and having taken in most of her water and stores, and received the sick on board, we ran up to Batavia Road, and anchored in four fathom and an half of water.
From this time, to the 24th, we were employed in getting on board the remainder of our water and provisions, with some new pumps, and in several other operations that were necessary to fit the ship for the sea, all which would have been effected much sooner, if sickness and death had not disabled or carried off a great number of our men.
While we lay here, the Earl of Elgin, Captain Cook, a ship belonging to the English East India Company, came to an anchor in the Road. She was bound from Madras to China, but having lost her passage, put in here to wait for the next season. The Phœnix, Captain Black, an English country ship, from Bencoolen, also came to an anchor at this place.
In the afternoon of Christmas eve, the 24th, I took leave of the Governor, and several of the principal gentlemen of the place, with whom I had formed connections, and from whom I received every possible civility and assistance; but in the mean time an accident happened, which might have produced disagreeable consequences. A seaman had run away from one of the Dutch ships in the Road, and entered on board of mine: the Captain had applied to the Governor, to reclaim him as a subject of Holland, and an order for that purpose was procured: this order was brought to me soon after I returned from my last visit, and I said, that if the man appeared to be a Dutchman, he should certainly be delivered up. Mr. Hicks commanded on board, and I gave the Dutch officer an order to him, to deliver the man up under that condition. I slept myself this night on shore, and, in the morning, the Captain of the Dutch Commodore came and told me that he had carried my order on board, but that the officer had refused to deliver up the man, alleging, not only that he was not a Dutchman, but that he was a subject of Great Britain, born in Ireland; I replied, that the officer had perfectly executed my orders, and that if the man was an English subject, it could not be expected that I should deliver him up. The Captain then said, that he was just come from the Governor, to demand the man of me in his name, as a subject of Denmark, alleging, that he stood in the ship’s books as born at Elsineur. The claim of this man as a subject of Holland being now given up, I observed to the Captain that there appeared to be some mistake in the General’s message, for that he would certainly never demand a Danish seaman from me, who had committed no other crime than preferring the service of the English to that of the Dutch. I added, however, to convince him of my sincere desire to avoid disputes, that if the man was a Dane he should be delivered up as a courtesy, though he could not be demanded as a right; but that, if I found he was an English subject, I would keep him at all events. Upon these terms we parted, and soon after I received a letter from Mr. Hicks, containing indubitable proof that the seaman in question was a subject of his Britannic Majesty. This letter I immediately carried to the Shebander, with a request that it might be shewn to the Governor, and that his Excellency might at the same time be told I would not upon any terms part with the man. This had the desired effect, and I heard no more of the affair.
In the evening, I went on board, accompanied by Mr. Banks, and the rest of the gentlemen who had constantly resided on shore, and who, though better, were not yet perfectly recovered.
At six in the morning of the 26th, we weighed and set sail, with a light breeze at S. W. The Elgin Indiaman saluted us with three cheers and thirteen guns, and the garrison with fourteen, both which, with the help of our swivels, we returned, and soon after the sea-breeze set in at N. by W., which obliged us to anchor just without the ships in the Road.
At this time the number of sick on board amounted to forty, and the rest of the ship’s company were in a very feeble condition. Every individual had been sick except the sail-maker, an old man between seventy and eighty years of age, and it is very remarkable that this old man, during our stay at this place, was constantly drunk every day: we had buried seven, the surgeon, three seamen, Mr. Green’s servant, Tupia, and Tayeto his boy. All but Tupia fell a sacrifice to the unwholesome, stagnant, putrid air of the country, and he who, from his birth, had been used to subsist chiefly upon vegetable food, particularly ripe fruit, soon contracted all the disorders that are incident to a sea life, and would probably have sunk under them before we could have completed our voyage, if we had not been obliged to go to Batavia to refit.