VOYAGE FEOM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 137 



name and from what I saw I could not be sure whether the name 

 indicated the seven land points or seven smaller islands, which 

 lay near one of these points of land, the number of them being 

 however very difficult to fix. Whether the Roman Catholic 

 Portuguese held them to be seven in number I cannot decide 

 here. The soil of all these islands was red and wherever there 

 were no shells, the sand was of the same colour. The foliage of 

 the trees growing on them was of a very dark green. We were 

 hardly one German mile from the shore. After having passed 

 almost all the cliffy points of land the anchors were cast. 



13. — The anchors were weighed in the morning, and we 

 passed the dangerous place where the current is very violent, 

 sometimes more than two miles in one hour, the passage being 

 very narrow on account of rocks underneath the water ; this is 

 near the island of St. John. This part of our journey was very 

 pleasant, as we passed by many islands which were only separ- 

 ated by narrow canals ; part of the shore of a long-stretched high 

 island had broken right away, and the bright red soil showed up 

 brilliantly in the clear morning. But the pleasure of sailing past 

 these islands was only of short duration, only till about 10 o'clock. 

 At that time a strong contrary wind arose from the west, with a 

 cloudy atmosphere and strong rain ; when it ceased we had to 

 sail a long way back before we came to a place where we could 

 cast the anchors. The atmosphere continued to be cloudy till 

 the evening. We had taken a pilot with us from Cochin-China ; 

 he was a Portuguese and did not seem to know the water of these 

 parts very well. In the evening we saw four ships in one line 

 entering the Strait, and casting anchors where we had been yes- 

 terday. The sea when seen from this calm place offered a ter- 

 rible spectacle, the darkest clouds towered above and we could 

 surmise the height of the waves outside by the rolling of the 

 water. We could not make out what ships those four were 

 which had entered the Strait, they seemed to be large and thej 

 all let down their anchors at a signal given by the^firing of a cannon. 



There was a weak but favourable wind. We made up for 

 what we had lost in the morning, and towards 8 o'clock the 

 anchor was cast again. 



14.— Early this morning, at four o'clock, the anchor was 

 weighed, and about seven o'clock we passed the narrow passage 

 near St. John, where the rapidly flowing waters from innumer- 



