Between one and two o’clock, we passed a bay or inlet before which lies a small island that seems to shelter it from the southerly winds; but I very much doubt whether there is sufficient depth of water behind it for shipping. I could not attempt to determine the question, because the S.E. trade wind blows right into the bay, and we had not as yet had any breeze from the land.

We stretched off to sea till twelve o’clock, when we were about eleven leagues from the land, and had deepened our water to twenty-nine fathom. We now tacked and stood in till five in the morning; when, being in six fathom and an half, we tacked and laid the head of the vessel off till daylight, when we saw the land, bearing N.W. by W. at about the distance of four leagues. We now made sail, and steered first W.S.W. then W. by S.; but coming into five fathom and an half, we hauled off S.W. till we deepened our water to eight fathom, and then kept away W. by S. and W. having nine fathom, and the land just in sight from the deck; we judged it to be about four leagues distant, and it was still very low and woody. Great quantities of the brown scum continued to appear upon the water, and the sailors, having given up the notion of its being spawn, found a new name for it, and called it Sea-saw-dust. At noon, our latitude by observation was 8° 30’ S.; our longitude 222° 34’ W.; and Saint Bartholomew’s isle bore N. 69 E. distant seventy-four miles.

Voyaging Accounts