State Library of NSW
From New Guinea to Batavia Sept 1770 -men of this fault among the few I have known who are capable of drawing a chart or sketch of a sea coast I have generally, nay almost always [observed?] them run into this error. I have known them lay down the line of a coast they have never seen, & put down soundings where they never have sounded. & after all are so fond of their performances as to pass the whole off as sterling under the title of a survey plan etc. These things must in time be attended with bad consequences & cannot fail of bringing the whole of their work into disrepute. If he is so modest as to say such & such parts or the whole of his plan is defective the publishers or vendures will have it left out because they say it hurts the sale of the work, so that between the one & the other we can hardly tell when we are possessed of a good sea chart until we ourselves have proved it. Saturday 8th. Winds Easterly with high sea from the same quarter, our course & distance sail'd this 24 hours is So. 86°:30' W 102 miles: Latitude in 9°:36' So. Long.de : 231°:17'W Sunday 9th. Light airs & clear wea.r the most p.t of the 24 hours. In the evening found the variation by several azi.th to be : 0°:12'W & by the amplitude 0°:5'W. at noon we were by observ.n in the Latde. of 9°:46'So. Longde. 232°:7'W. Course & distce. sail'd since yesterday at noon So. 78°:45'W. 52 miles for these 2 days past we have steer'd due W. & yet we have by observation made 16 miles Southing 6 miles yesterday & 10 today from which it should seem that there is a current sitting to the southward & westward with all as I should suppose. [margin] Timor [/margin] Monday 10th. Light airs easterly except in the morning when we had it at No. at sunset found the variation to be 0:2 W. at the same time saw or thought we saw very high land bearing NW. & in the morning saw the same appearances of land in the same quarter which left us no room to doubt but what it was land, & must be either the island of Timor land or Timor, but which of the 2 I cannot as yet determine. At noon we were by observation in the Latitude of 10'.1So. which was 15 miles to the southward of that given by the log: Longde. in //observation 233:27 W Tuesday 11th. Variable light airs & clear wea.r steer'd NW in order to discover the land plainer until 4 in the morning at which the wind came to the NW. & West with which we stood to the South until 9 o'clock when we [?] & stood NW. having the wind at WSW. at our rise in the morning we could see the land extend from WNW. to NE. at noon we could see it extend to the westward as far as WbS 1/2 So. but no further to the eastward than NbE. we were now well assured that this was part of the Island of Timor, in consequence of which the last island we saw must have been Timorland the So. part of which is in the
This page has its status set to Ready for review and is no longer transcribable.