1771* ROUND THE WORLD. 858 



some ; it certainly aggravated the diseases which we 

 brought with us from Batavia, and particularly the 

 rlux, which was not in the least degree checked by 

 any medicine, so that whoever was seized with it, 

 considered himself as a dead man ; but we had no 

 sooner got into the trade-wind, than we began to feel 

 its salutary effects : we buried indeed several of our 

 people afterwards, but they were such as had been 

 taken on board in a state so low and feeble, that there 

 was scarcely a possibility of their recovery. At first 

 we suspected that this dreadful disorder might have 

 been brought upon us by the water that we took on 

 board at Prince's Island, or even by the turtle that 

 we bought there ; but there is not the least reason 

 to believe that this suspicion was well grounded, for 

 all the ships that came from Batavia at the same 

 season, suffered in the same degree, and some of 

 them even more severely, though none of them 

 touched at Prince's island in their way. 



A few days after we left Java, we saw boobies 

 about the ship for several nights successively, and 

 as these birds are known to roost every night on 

 shore, we thought them an indication that some 

 island was not far distant ; perhaps it might be the 

 island of Selam, which, in different charts, is very 

 differently laid down both in name and situation. 



The variation of the compass off the west coast 

 of Java is about 3 W., and so it continued with- 

 out anv sensible variation, in the common track of 

 ships to the longitude of 288 W., latitude 22 S., 

 after which it increased apace, so that in longitude 

 295, latitude 23, the variation was 10 20' W. : in 

 seven degrees more of longitude, and one of lati- 

 tude, it increased two degrees ; in the same space 

 farther to the west, it increased five degrees : in 

 latitude 28, longitude 314, it was 24\ 20'; in lati- 

 tude 29, longitude 317, it was 26 10' ; and was then 

 stationary for the space of about ten degrees far- 

 ther to the west ; but in latitude 34, longitude 333, 

 we observed it twice to be 28J W., and this was its 



VOL. II. A A 



