330 AUSTRALIA TO SAVU ISLAND CHAP. XIV 
which was a great appearance of salt-water creeks and many 
mangroves. In parts, however, were many cocoanut trees. 
Close down to the beach the flat land seemed to extend in 
some places two or three miles before the rise of the first 
hill. We saw no appearance of plantations or houses near 
the sea, but the land looked most fertile, and from the many 
fires we saw in different parts we could not help having a 
good opinion of its population. 
14th. Infinite albecores and bonitos were about the ship, 
attended, as they always are when near land, by some 
species of Sterna. These were Dampier’s New Holland 
noddies, which flew in large flocks, hovering over the shoals 
of fish, Many man-of-war birds also attended, and enter- 
tained us by very frequently stooping at albecores so large 
that twenty times their strength could not have lifted them, 
had they been dexterous enough to seize them, which they 
never once effected. 
15th. About a mileup from the beach began the plantations, 
and houses almost innumerable standing under the shade of 
large groves of palms, appearing like the fan-palm (Borassus). 
The plantations, which were in general enclosed with some 
kind of fence, reached almost to the top of the hills, but 
near the beach were no certain marks of habitations seen. 
But what surprised us most was that, notwithstanding all 
these indisputable marks of a populous country, we saw 
neither people nor any kind of cattle stirring all the day, 
though our glasses were almost continually employed. 
16th. Soon after breakfast the small island of Rotte was 
in sight, and a little later the opening appeared plainly, 
which at last convinced our old unbelievers that the island 
we had so long been off was really Timor. Soon after dinner 
we passed the straits. Rotte was not mountainous or high 
like Timor, but consisted of hills and vales. On the east 
end of it some of our people saw houses, but I did not. The 
north side had many sandy beaches, near which grew some 
of the fan-palms, but the greater part was covered with a 
kind of bushy tree which had few or no leaves. The straits 
between Timor and the island called by Dampier Anabao we 
