After Infinite Difficulty
And Much Danger, We At Length Made Our Way Through A Strait, Which We
Named St John's Straits, After The Name Of Our Bark.
At this time we
were boarded by a large Indian proa, on board of which was a freeman of
Amboina, whom we acquainted with our great want of victuals, having had
nothing for a great while to support us except a scanty allowance of
spoilt flour and water, and so very little of that as hardly sufficed to
keep us alive. He told us, if we would go to the island of Manissa,
which was then in sight, he would be our pilot, where he had no doubt we
might have enough of rice for our money to carry us to Batavia. We
accordingly proceeded for Manissa, passing by the island of Keylan,
which is small and high, but well inhabited, and clothed with many kinds
of trees. Its chief produce is rice, and a few cloves; and on this
island there is a Dutch corporal with six soldiers, whose only business
is to see all the clove trees cut down and destroyed. From thence we
proceeded to Manissa, where we arrived about midnight, and came to
anchor in a small bay at the N.W. end of the island, when our Dutch
pilot sent two men ashore with a letter to the governor, acquainting him
of our urgent wants.
Early of the 23d May, a Dutch corporal and two soldiers came on board,
and read to us a general order from the Dutch East-India Company, that
if any ships, except their own, came there to anchor, they were not to
be supplied with any thing whatever. We told him that extreme want of
provisions had constrained us to put in here, and that we should not
have touched any where before reaching Batavia, if we could possibly
have subsisted; wherefore we requested he would inform the governor of
our urgent wants. This he engaged to do, seeing us in a very weak
condition, and came back about four in the afternoon, saying that we
could have no provisions here, but might be supplied at Amboina. We were
forced therefore to leave this unfriendly place, and to attempt going to
Amboina, if the wind would serve. Manissa is about fifteen miles from
S.E. to N.W. and about eight in breadth, in lat. 3 deg. 25' S. and about
twenty miles west from the island of Bonou. It is a remarkably high
island, and pretty well inhabited by Malays, as are all the Molucca
Islands. It is surrounded by shoals almost on every side, and some of
these stretch a league and a half from the shore, so that it is very
dangerous to come near, unless with very good charts, or with an
experienced pilot. It has several good springs of fresh water, and the
Dutch have a small fort with six guns on its S.W. side. It is governed
by a Dutch serjeant, having under him three corporals, a master gunner,
and twenty European soldiers; and produces vast plenty of rice and
cloves, both of which are sent to Amboina.
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