326 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[April, 
man on board, and one poor fellow had just been consigned to 
his watery sepulchre, after an illness of only twenty-four hours. 
On Sunday, the fifteenth, at three o'clock in the morning, the 
frigate encountered a strong squall from the northwest. The 
heavy waters seemed to be once more in motion ; but in less 
than three hours it was calm again ; and at noon it was found, by 
observation, that she had only made four miles in the last twenty- 
four hours ; that she was in latitude 4° 20' south, and was less 
than one hundred and twenty miles from her starting-place at 
Batavia. The weather this day was excessively warm, the ther- 
mometer in the shade standing at 84°, 
On Monday, the sixteenth, the frigate's progress was accel- 
erated by what the sailors call cafs-paws, light puffs of v/ind, 
which pushed her forward to within ten miles of Entrance Point, 
which is the southeast angle of the island called Pulo Leat, or 
Middle Island, separating Macclesfield's Strait from Clement's 
Strait. These two straits, generally known under the single ap- 
pellation of Gaspar, the name of the Spanish captain who made 
the passage in seventeen hundred and twenty-four, are formed by 
the Island of Banca on the west, and Billiton Island on the east. 
These two islands are about fifty miles apart, and between them 
are two smaller ones, called Long Island and fiddle Island, the 
first being near Billiton, and the other near Banca. Gaspar Island 
is about twenty-five miles further north. The passage between 
Banca and Pulo Leat, or Middle Island, is the one which is gen- 
erally called Macclesfield's Strait, and the one through which the 
Potomac passed into the China Sea. She entered this strait on 
Tuesday, the seventeenth, which placed a distance of only two 
hundred and twenty-five miles between her and Batavia. The 
passage between Middle Island and Long Island is called Clem- 
ent's Strait ; and both together form Gaspar Straits, in the plural 
number. 
r« On Wednesday, the eighteenth, the frigate had so fine a run as 
to pass sixty miles to the north of Gaspar Island, which is in 
latitude 2° 25' 30" south, and is the principal landmark in passing 
this strait; as it has a high peaked hill rising from its surface, 
which may be seen at the distance of thirty miles. The Potomac 
was now about three hundred miles north of Batavia. 
On Friday, the twentieth, it was a perfect calm ; and the sea 
