On the 27th, steering northward for the coast of New Guinea, we were surprized again by the appearance of a shoal all round us; on examination, however, we found it was only a sort of spawn swimming upon the water, such as we had often seen before, that gave it that appearance. We had, on this day, twenty-nine fathoms water and under. Latitude 9° 5°'.

On the 28th, about noon, we got into very broken ground, the soundings being, on a sudden, from three fathoms to ten, and continued very irregular all the afternoon, with hard ground. This, however, did not prevent us from making all the sail we could, and without a boat ahead. About four o'clock in the afternoon, we saw low land. Toward the evening it blew very hard from the S. E. and we stood E. N. E. and were in great danger of striking. As the water was so shoal, we stood backwards and forwards all night; and, through the good providence of God, met with no accident. Latitude 8° 5°.

On the 29th, we stood in for the land of New Guinea, which looked very flat, and was covered with trees, among which we saw a great many palms that over-topped the rest; but whether there were cocoa-nuts we could not get near enough, for the shoals, to determine. We saw an opening which had the appearance of a river's mouth; and many smokes on the land. In the afternoon we were abreast of a point of land, which we supposed was that distinguished in the maps by the name of Cape Valsch, or False Cape: From this cape the land continued low, but did not tend to the S. E. as we expected. We could not keep near the shore, the soundings being only from five to ten fathoms, at three or four leagues distance from. land. The water was very white and muddy, like that of a river, and had a sandy bottom. Latitude 8° 1°.

Voyaging Accounts