At eight o’clock in the evening, it began to blow fresh from the westward, with violent thunder, lightning, and rain; and at three the next morning, we weighed and stood over for Prince’s Island, but the westerly wind dying away, was succeeded by a breeze from the south-east, and, at the same time, a strong tide setting to the south-west prevented our fetching the island, and obliged us, at two in the afternoon, to drop anchor in sixty-five fathoms, over a muddy bottom, at three leagues distance from it; the high hill bearing south-west by south, and the peak on Cracatoa north by east. We had light airs and calms till six next morning, when we weighed and made sail, having, in our endeavours to heave the anchor out of the ground, twice broken the old messenger, and afterward a new one, cut out of our best hawser. This, however, was entirely owing to the wretched state of our cordage, as the strain was not very considerable, and we had besides assisted the cable in coming in, by clapping the cat-tackle on it. The wind continuing fair, at noon we came to an anchor off the south-east end of Prince’s Island, in twenty-six fathoms, over a sandy bottom; the east end of the island bearing north north-east, the southernmost point in sight south-west by south, the high peak north-west half west, distant from the nearest shore half a mile.
As soon as we had come to anchor, Lieutenant Lannyon, who had been here before with Captain Cook, in the year 1770 was sent along with the master, to look for the watering-place. The brook from which, according to the best of his recollection, the Endeavour had been supplied, was found quite salt. Further inland, they saw a dry bed, where the water seemed to have lodged in rainy seasons; and, about a cable’s length below, another run, supplied from an extensive pool, the bottom of which, as well as the surface, was covered with dead leaves. This, though a little brackish, being much preferable to the other, we began watering here early the next morning, and finished the same day.
The natives, who came to us soon after we anchored, brought a plentiful supply of large fowls, and some turtles; but the last were for the most part very small. In the course of the night we had heavy rain; and on the 14th, at day-light, we saw the Resolution to the northward, standing toward the island, and at two in the afternoon, she dropt anchor close to us. In the course of the day, we heeled the ship, and scrubbed and hogged her bottom, which was very foul; and got ready for sea.
The next day, Captain Gore not having completed his stock of water at Cracatoa, sent his men on shore, who now found the brook that was first mentioned, rendered perfectly sweet by the rain, and flowing in great abundance. This being too valuable a treasure to be neglected, I gave orders, that all the casks we had filled before should be started, and replenished with the fresh water, which was accordingly done before noon the next day; and in the evening, we cleared the decks, and both ships were ready for sea.
In the forenoon of the 18th, we had heavy rains, and variable winds, which prevented our getting under weigh till two in the afternoon, when a light wind sprung up from the northward; but this soon after leaving us, we were obliged to drop our anchor again at eight o’clock that night, in fifty fathoms’ water, and wait till the same hour the next morning. At that time, being favoured by a breeze from the north-west, we broke ground, to our inexpressible satisfaction, for the last time in the Straits of Sunda, and, the next day, had entirely lost sight of Prince’s Island.
This island having been already described by Captain Cook, in the history of a former voyage, I shall only add, that we were exceedingly struck with the great general resemblance of the natives, both in figure, colour, manners, and even language, to the nations we had been so much conversant with, in the South Seas. The effects of the Javanese climate, and I did not escape without my full share of it, made me incapable of pursuing the comparison so minutely as I could have wished.
The country abounds with wood to such a degree, that notwithstanding the quantity cut down every year by the ships which put into the road, there is no appearance of its diminution. We were well supplied with small turtle and fowls of a moderate size; the last were sold at the rate of ten for a Spanish dollar. The natives also brought us many hog-deer, and a prodigious number of monkeys, to our great annoyance, as most of our sailors provided themselves with one, if not two of these troublesome animals.
As we should have met with some difficulty in finding the watering-place, if Mr. Lannyon had not been with us, it may be worth while, for the use of future navigators, to describe its situation more particularly. The peaked hill on the island bears from it north-west by north; a remarkable tree growing upon a coral reef, and quite detached from the neighbouring shrubs, stands just to the northward; and, close by it, there is a small plot of reedy grass, the only piece of the kind that can be seen hereabout. These marks will show the place where the pool empties itself into the sea; but the water here is generally salt as well as that which is in the pool. The casks must, therefore, be filled about fifty yards higher up; where, in dry seasons, the fresh water that comes down from the hills is lost among the leaves, and must be searched for by clearing them away.
| The latitude of the anchoring-place at Prince’s Island was, | 6° | 36ʹ | 15ʺ | S. |
| Longitude, | 105 | 17 | 30 | E. |
| Dip of the south pole of the magnetic needle, | 28 | 15 | 0 | |
| Variation of the compass, | 0 | 54 | 0 | W. |
| Mean of the thermometer, | 83 | 01⁄2 | 0 |
From the time of our entering the Straits of Banca, we began to experience the powerful effects of this pestilential climate. Two of our people fell dangerously ill of malignant putrid fevers; which, however, we prevented from spreading, by putting the patients apart from the rest, in the most airy births. Many were attacked with teazing coughs; others complained of violent pains in the head; and even the healthiest among us felt a sensation of suffocating heat, attended by an insufferable languor, and a total loss of appetite. But though our situation was, for a time, thus uneasy and alarming, we had, at last, the singular satisfaction of escaping from these fatal seas without the loss of a single life; a circumstance which was probably owing in part to the vigorous health of the crews when we first arrived here, as well as to the strict attention now become habitual in our men, to the salutary regulations introduced amongst us by Captain Cook.