The season now approached in which navigation to the westward would be again practicable, which gave us all great pleasure; especially as putrid diseases had begun to make their appearance among us, and a putrid fever had carried off one of our people.

On the 7th of May, the Resident gave me a long letter from the Governor of Macassar, which was written in Dutch, and of which he gave me the best interpretation he was able. The general purport of it was, that he had heard a letter had been sent to me, charging him, in conjunction with the king of Bony, with a design to cut us off: that the letter was altogether false, exculpating himself with the most solemn protestations, and requiring the letter to be delivered up, that the writer might be brought to such punishment as he deserved. It is scarcely necessary to say that I did not deliver up the letter, because the writer would certainly have been punished with equal severity whether it was true or false; but I returned the Governor a polite answer, in which I justified the measures I had taken, without imputing any evil design to him or his allies; and indeed there is the greatest reason to believe, that there was not sufficient ground for the charge contained in the letter, though it is not equally probable that the writer believed it to be false.

Voyaging Accounts