17?0. ROUND THE WOULD. 233 



Between one and two o'clock, we passed a bay or 

 inlet, before which lies a small island that seems to 

 shelter it from the southerly winds ; but I very much 

 doubt whether there is sufficient depth of water be- 

 hind it for shipping. I could not attempt to deter- 

 mine the question, because the S. E. trade-wind 

 blows right into the bay, and we had not as yet had 

 any breeze from the land. 



We stretched off to sea till twelve o'clock, when 

 we were about eleven leagues from the land, and had 

 deepened our water to twenty-nine fathom. We now 

 tacked and stood in till live in the morning ; when, 

 being in six fathom and a half, we tacked and 

 laid the head of the vessel off till daylight, when 

 we saw the land, bearing N. W. by W., at about 

 the distance of four leagues. We now made sail, and 

 steered first W. S. W., then W. by S. ; but coming 

 into five fathom and a half, we hauled off S. W. till 

 we deepened our water to eight fathom, and then 

 kept away W. by S. and W., having nine fathom, and 

 the land just in sight from the deck ; we judged it 

 to be about four leagues distant, and it was still very 

 low and woody. Great quantities of the brown scum 

 continued to appear upon the water, and the sailors 

 having given up the notion of its being spawn, found 

 a new name for it, and called it Sea-saw-dust. At 

 noon, our latitude, by observation, was 8 30' S., our 

 longitude 222 34' W. ; and Saint Bartholomew's Isle 

 bore N. 69 E., distant seventy -four miles. 



As all this coast appears to have been very mi- 

 nutely examined by the Dutch, and as our track, 

 with the soundings, will appear by the chart, it is 

 sufficient to say, that we continued our course to the 

 northward with very shallow water, upon a bank of 

 mud, at such a distance from the shore as that it 

 could scarcely be seen from the ship, till the third of 

 September. During this time we made many at- 

 tempts to get near enough to go on shore, but with- 

 out success j and having now lost six days of fair 



