28 SINGAPORE OLD STRAITS AND NEW HARBOUR. 
rock to the middle of the channel. About an arquebus-shot 
further on, on the same South side, is a passage reaching to the 
sea on the other side thus making an Island [Sélat Singkeh]. 
It is too shallow for any but small craft (petites fustes) to use. 
In the middle of the bay opposite the opening of this passage is 
a rock or rocky shoal two fathoms under water which reaches 
a little out of the bay to the middle of the channel. When 
you are up to this bay you see a straight hill which forms a 
cape at the end of the straits. Having doubled this cape you 
gee a red hill near which the bottom is good and clean, after 
which the land trends to the South-east. 
On the North side of the straits there are in all three bays, 
of which the first two are small and the third, which lies opposite 
the cape of the red hill at the end of the straits, large. This 
third bay has a bank of rock which is uncovered at low water 
and reaches from headland to headland; care must be taken of 
it. Everything on the North side outside this bay is through- 
out the channel clean and good from one headland to the other. 
At the exit from the passage are two reefs, one of which is . 
opposite to the mouth of it about a cannon-shot away (a la 
portée d’une piéce de fer) running North and South; the other | 
is to the South of the mouth and a short cannon-shot away (a la 
portée d’un canon mediocre) stretching to the Hast so that the | 
; 
two make a cross; both can be seen at low water. The 
channel between them has barely four fathoms with a muddy 
bottom ; outside the channel the bottom is sand whereby many 
ships have come in danger of shipwreck. If therefore you have 
to go that way take care when leaving the channel not to steer 
due Kast, and if you wish to anchor bear to the South, for if 
you stop in the current of the straits you may lose an anchor 
or two through the violence of the ship’s motion. 
When clear of the straits bear to your right along the land 
but not coming closer to it than a depth of four fathoms, and 
when you have passed the first beach, together with a hill and 
a rock at the end of it, and a bay which lies opposite the hill, 
and have reached half way to another hill, which is at the other 
end of the above mentioned passage from the straits, you 
should then shape your course to the East, not coming within 
four fathoms on either side for fear of falling on banks and 
shoals. The bottom of the channel is muddy. You must 
always have the lead in your hand until you have got a greater 
depth, which you will soon do. It is safest to use a small boat 
to sound the channel. When you have reached twelve or 
fifteen fathoms beware of the South side until you are a league 
to the East of the Straits, for from fifteen fathoms you would 
get ten and then would find yourself on some shoal, for there 
- are many shoals and sand banks just there. 
These Straits (of Rumenia) have six small Islands [Pulau 
Lima] on each side of Jantana [Johor] which is on the North 
Jour, Straits Branch 
