All Round Amboina The Bottom Is Sand, But The Water Is So Deep That
There Is No Anchorage Near Its Shores, Except To Leeward, Or On The West
Side, Where A Ship May Anchor In Forty Fathoms, Close To The Shore In
The Harbour.
This harbour runs so deep into the island as almost to
divide it into two, which are joined by so narrow a neck of land that
the Malays often haul their canoes across.
On the east side of the entry
into the harbour there is a small fort of six guns, close to which the
depth is twenty fathoms. About a league farther up is the usual
anchorage for ships, close under the guns of the great castle, which has
been called Victoria ever since the massacre of the English at this
place. About two miles farther to the N.E. and within the harbour, is
the place where the English factory formerly stood; and near it is the
hole into which the English were said to have been thrown after the
massacre. Few of us who were now here but expected the same fate; and
some of the inhabitants did not scruple to say that our only protection
was our journal, which had been sent to Batavia by the Dutch ship we met
when going into the harbour; as by this it would soon be known all over
India that a part of Captain Dampier's crew had arrived at Aniboina,
which would cause us to be enquired after.
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