21', or 155 miles W. from Amboina. We then
steered W. by N. till we made two islands called the Cabeses, whence
we procured some hundred cocoa nuts. The eastermost island, to which we
sent our boat, is low and uninhabited, but has been planted full of
cocoa-nut trees by the Dutch, for the use of their vessels going between
the spice islands and Batavia, as it is a kind of miracle to see any
other ship in these parts except those belonging to the Dutch. Off this
island we met our own bark which had brought us from America to Amboina,
the Dutch having fitted her up with a main-mast and converted her into a
very good vessel. This island is in lat. 5 deg. 23' S. and nearly W. by N.
from the island of Lancas, about forty-five miles distant, and has a
shoal extending about two miles from the shore. To the S.W. of this is
the other island of Cabeses, a pretty high island, on which the Dutch
always keep a corporal and two soldiers, who go two or three times all
over the isle to see that no cloves are planted, and if they find any to
cut them down and burn them, lest any other nation might be able to
procure that commodity, in which case Amboina would become of little
value, as cloves are its only valuable product.
We next passed by the S. end of the island of Bouton, or Booton,
which is pretty large, and in the lat.
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