They discover theIslands Rotte and Semall, 165 
Dampier entered with his boat, for it did not feem to have fuf- 
ficient depth of water for a fhip. The land here anfwered well 
to the defcription that he has given of it: clofe to the beach it 
was covered with high fpiry trees, which he mentions as hav- 
ing the appearance of pines ; behind thefe there feemed to be 
fait water creeks, and many mangroves, interfperfed however 
with cocoa-nut trees: the flat land at the beach appeared in 
fome places to extend inward two or three miles before the rife 
of the fir ft hill; in this part, however, we faw no appearance 
of plantations or houfes, but great fertility, and from the 
number of fires, we judged that the place mull be well peopled. 
When we had approached within a mile and an half of the 
fhore, we tacked and flood off, and the extreams of the coaft 
then extended from N. E. by E. to W. by S. | S, The fouth 
wefterly extremity was a low point, diftant from us about three 
leagues. While we were Handing in for the Ihore, w'e founded 
feveral times, but had no ground till we came within about two 
miles and a half, and then we had five and twenty fathom, 
with a foft bottom. After w'e had tacked, we flood off till 
midnight, with the wind at S. ; we then tacked and flood two 
hours to theweftward, when the wind veered to S. W.andW.S. 
W. and we thenftood to the fcuthward again. In the morning, 
we found the variation to be t° io' W. by the amplitude, and 
by the azimuth i° 27'. At noon, our latitude was, by obfier- 
vaticn, 9 0 45' S. our longitude 234° 12' W. ; we were then 
about leven leagues diftant from the land, which extended from 
N. 31 E. to W. S.W.iW. 
With light land breezes from W. by N. for a few hours in a 
morning, and fea breezes from S. S. V/. and S. we advanced 
to the weftward but flowly. At noon on the 14th; we were 
between fix and feven leagues from the land, which extended 
from N. by E. to S. 78 W. ; we Hill faw fmoke in many places 
by day, and fire by night, both upon the low land and the 
mountains beyond it. We continued fleering along the fhore, 
till the morning of the 15th, the land Hill appearing hilly, 
but not lo high as it had been : the hills in general came quite 
down to the fea, and where they did not, we faw in.ftead of 
flats and mangrove land, immenfe groves of cocoa- nut trees, 
reaching about a mile up from the beach : there the plantations 
and houfes commenced, and appeared to be innumerable. The 
houfes were lhaded by groves of the fan palm, or borajj'us , and 
the plantations, which were inclofed by a fence, reached almoft 
to the tops of the highell hiils. We faw however neither people 
nor cattle, though our glaflis were continually employed, at 
which we were not a little furprifed. 
We continued our courfe, with little variation, till nine 
o’clock in the*morning of the 16th, when we faw the fm all 
ifland called Rotte ; and at noon, the illand Semau, lying 
off the fouth end of Timor, bore N. W. Dampier, 
