334 
SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPICAL 
1819. were, the probable length of the voyage, and 
Oct. 24>. when there, the chance of being delayed until the 
adverse monsoon should set in against us, by 
which our return to Port Jackson would be per- 
haps prevented. To undertake the second would, 
from our being weakly manned, subject us to 
danger from the Malay piratical proas in passing 
the Straits; but, as the latter mode of proceed- 
ing could be resorted to in the event of our 
failing in the other, our united opinion was, 
that, of the two plans, the better was to go to 
Timor. Upon this decision all hands were im- 
mediately set to work to fill our empty water- 
casks with salt water, and to get all the weighty 
things off the deck into the hold, in order to give 
the vessel more stability. This was completed 
25. by night, and, at break of day, we left the an- 
chorage with a fresh breeze from E.S.E. 
Considering the short time we were on shore, 
it would be the greatest presumption for me to 
say anything respecting Savu, when so good an 
account is already before the public in Captain 
Cook’s voyage*. Every circumstance that we 
could compare with it is still correct, except 
that the women appear to have lost the de- 
cency he describes them to possess; for there 
were several, whom curiosity and the novelty of 
. * Hawkesworth, Coll. vol. iii. p 277, et seq. 
