The Inhabitants Are Mostly
Fishers, And Catch Such Abundance Of Fish As Not Only Supplies
Themselves, But Enables Them Also To Carry A Great Deal To Amboina.
We stood to the S.W. having the wind at S.S.E. and blowing fresh, so
that we sailed under our courses, and were now much out of heart, not
expecting to reach Amboina, the S E. monsoon being now set in; which was
right against us.
Almost in despair, we continued our course till we
were over against the island of Bouro, and then the wind veering to
the S.S.W. we stood away S.E. but finding a strong current setting to
leeward, we rather lost ground, and seeing no likelihood of getting to
Amboina, we, by general consent, shared among us all that was eatable on
board, each man's share being six pounds and three quarters of flour,
and five pounds of bran, every one resolving to use his share as
sparingly as possible. On the 25th, the wind veered to S.S.E. when we
tacked to S.W. and soon weathered the island of Amblow. This is a
small island of moderate height, in lat. 4 deg. 5' S. tolerably furnished
with trees, but not inhabited. On the 26th, we had a fine fresh gale at
S.E. when we tacked and stood away N.E. for the island of Amboina.
Continuing the same course all the 27th, we got sight of Amboina early
in the morning of the 28th, bearing due N. about six leagues distant. We
now stood directly for the island, and about noon came just off the
harbour, a joyful sight to us then, though we soon had cause to think it
the worst thing that had befallen us.
As we entered the harbour of Amboina, we met two Dutch ships coming out,
laden with cloves and bound for Batavia. The captain of one of these
came on board our bark, desiring to know whence we came and whither we
were bound, and required to have a journal of our voyage, promising to
return it when he again met us at Batavia. We gave him the best answers
we could to all his questions, and the agent of our owners gave him a
succinct relation of our voyage, which was of happy consequence to us,
as to that we afterwards owed our preservation as will appear in the
sequel. We stood into the harbour that night, and next morning, which,
according to our account, was Tuesday, but with the Dutch Wednesday, two
Dutch orambies, as they call the vessels used at that place, came on
board us, each of which was paddled by forty men. In these vessels came
the fiscal and several Dutch gentlemen, with eighty soldiers, who
immediately took possession of our bark. They also went below and sealed
up all our chests, after which the two orambies towed us farther into
the harbour, so that by noon we were up as high as the town of Amboina,
where they moored our bark in the ordinary anchorage.
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