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 daylight, we saw the Resolution to the northward, standing toward the island; and at two in the afternoon, she dropped 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 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 way 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 N.W., we broke ground, to our inexpressible satisfaction, for the last time in the Strait 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 N.W. by N.; 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 shew 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° 36' 15" south. Longitude 105 17 30 east. Dip of the south pole of the magnetic needle 28 15 0 Variation of the compass 0 54 0 west. Mean of the thermometer 83 1/2
From the time of our entering the Strait 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.
On our leaving Prince's Island, and during the whole time of our run from thence to the Cape of Good Hope, the crew of the Resolution was in a much more sickly state than that of the Discovery; for though many of us continued for some time complaining of the effects of the noxious climate we had left, yet happily we all recovered from them. Of the two who had been ill of fevers, one, after being seized with violent convulsions, on the 12th of February, which made us despair of his life, was relieved by the application of blisters, and was soon after out of danger. The other recovered, but more slowly. On board the Resolution, besides the obstinate coughs and fevers under which they very generally laboured, a great many were afflicted with fluxes, the number of whom, contrary to our expectations, continued increasmg till our arrival at the Cape.