respecting the navigation from Batavia, to Samarang, appear the result of much nautical observation :

On leaving the road of Batavia, steer for the island of Edam; then between that and the island Leyden, or clse between Leyden and Enkhuizen; and afterwards round Point Carawang, and so far from the shore, to have offing enough to pass the reef which runs out from Sedary; the lead is in this respect the best guide, since you must not suffer it to shoal more than ten fathoms, till this reef be passed, of which you may be certain, in the day-time, when the high trees of Sedary, which are a few single trees, easily to be distinguished on account of their height, bear S. S. W. and in the night, steering to the east, in twelve fathoms water, it deepens when you are past the reef; upon which steer more southerly, keeping however your depth, into the bight of Pamanoekan, till the water shoals to ten and nine fathoms, when you must steer again more east, in order not to ap proach too near the shore of Java; you may be sure you will then run clear of the rock, upon which the Castle of Woerden was lost, although there is sixteen fathoms water close to it: but the safest is to anchor here, during the night. Having doubled the point of Pamanoekan, steer for that of Indraymaye, in ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen fathoms water; upon approaching the last, be sure to keep in those depths, to avoid falling upon the reef of Cheribon, which having passed, steer as much to the southward of east, as to retain nineteen or twenty fathoms depth; or in the day-time, keeping within sight of the shore, till you begin to near Pamalang, when you must steer so far off shore as to double the rock which lies N. E. by N. from that place: you will then come in sight of the hills of Tagal, Samarang, and the Two Brothers; when the last bear due south, steer for the shore, and afterwards along it, till the ensign's staff of Samarang bears S. S. E. and let drop your anchor, in five, or four and a half, fathoms. All along the north coast of Java, the bottom is a soft clay.

In the course of this volume some errors are noticed in the Dutch charts:

We here perceived that the south coast of Java, instead of being laid down, in the Company's charts, with requisite accuracy, is, on the contrary, placed very erroneously; for, with the course which we had steered at night, we ought, according to the charts, not only not to have approached the land, but to have bore away from it more and more. I am not the only one, who has been deceived in this respect, for having accidentally on board a journal of the Company's ship Zuidbeveland, commanded by Captain Halfman, I found the same occurrence noted down in it, at the same place.

It is really to be lamented, that so powerful a body as the East India Company, and whose prosperity so much depends upon the safe and prosperous voyages of their ships, should trouble themselves so little with the improvement of navigation in general, and the correction of their charts in particular. I could adduce many instances of their faultiness, both with respect to the Indies, and to the coast of Africa. Other nations pursue this object with indefatigable assiduity, especially the English, whose maps are, in general, infinitely preferable to our's. We sailed till the 28th of January, east and north, without seeing any land. In the morning of that day, at sunrise, we discovered two islands, from the masthead, bearing N. N. W. which we conceived were the little Pulo Lauts, or Water Islands. We at first thought, that they were the Noussa Linas: but whichever they were, this is certain, that neither the one, nor the other, are placed in their true situations, in the Company's charts.

Much stress is laid, among the Company's servants, upon the great danger of the navigation to the eastward of Batavia, which may pos sibly be encouraged underhand, for political reasons, by persons in power; but I did not, in fact, find it so bad, at least as far as Celebes, or Macasser, as is pretended. It would be well if the charts of these parts, which the Company give to their vessels, were correct; it is this that makes the navigation so dangerous. None of the islands which I met with, except the group called the Hen and Chickens, are laid down in their true latitudes, as may be proved by my log-book, and those of other ships. This inaccuracy not only render these charts useless, but likewise extremely dangerous; for instead of being, as they ought, the surest guide and dependence of the navigator, they mislead him, and become his bane. It is not impossible, but this may be purposely left so, and that it is an adopted opinion, that it is better to expose a few ships to the danger of shipwreck, than to correct errors, which might operate to render the navigation towards the Spice Islands difficult and hazardous for other nations; for it cannot be pretended, that this notorious faultiness is unknown to the Company, since the Commander of every vessel, on his return to Batavia, must deliver a journal of his voyage to a master mapmaker, or hydrographer, specially appointed for that purpose; and no one, who, in any degree, deserves the name of seaman, can pass over such gross mistakes, without noting them down in his log book: for my own part, at least, I have seen, and had in my possession, for a long time, several log-books, in which the same errors, which I have just noticed, have been equally mentioned.

The government at Batavia, moreover, strictly enjoin the Commanders of all vessels, not only duly to note all such matters in their log books, but likewise to give a particular account thereof to the

governor general, or to the chief of the settlement where they arrive, agreeably to the resolution, to that purpose, taken on the 10th of December 1771; and yet the charts have never been altered, since that period, no more than before.-The next day, being the 1st of February, we discovered, a little before sunrise, the Tonins, or Tunny Islands, which are three in number, but which we now saw in one, bearing N. by W. as likewise the islands the Salinas, bearing N. W. by W. We then steered E. N. E. for the islands the Three Brothers, which, together with the island Tanakeke, we got sight of at eleven o'clock, A. M. the latter bearing east, and the former E. N. E.

Keeping this course, we steered for the northernmost of the Three Brothers; shortly afterwards we saw the high land of Celebes, and found, at noon, by a good observation of the sun's altitude, that all these parts lie twenty minutes, or five leagues, more to the southward, than they are laid down in the charts.

Along the coast of Java the Tide rises once in twenty-four hours. In the bad monsoon kwaade mousson, or when the west winds blow, it is high water in the day time, and low water at night; and during the good, or east monsoon, the contrary takes place. When it is low water without the banks, the rivers are at the highest; and the moon seems to have no influence here upon the tides. Mr. Stavorinus gives an ample account of the different Dutch East India Islands, particularly that of Celebes. The men of Bern*, in this island, are in general good warriors, both at sea, and on land; the richest among them are merchants; the others employ themselves in the building of Proas, an account of which is subjoined by Mr. Wilcocke:

They build their proas, which they call paduakans, very tight, by dowling the planks together, as coopers do the parts that form the head of a cask (and putting the bark of a certain tree between, which swells), and then fit timbers to the planks, as at Bombay, but do not rabbet, as it is called, the planks, as is done there. In Europe we build reversely; we set up the timbers first, and fit the planks to them afterwards. They are bigotted to old models and fixtures in fitting their vessels the largest never exceed fifty tons: they have their bow lowered, or cut down, in a very awkward manner, so as to be

* This province reaches from the river Bampang eastward, along the seacoast, to the point of Lassem, called Lassoa in the Dutch charts, and thence Lorthward, to the point of Cadjang; on the Canside it borders upon Bocle Comba, Tourang, and Kadjang, belonging to Bocle-bocle.

often under water; a bulk head is raised a good way abaft the stems to keep off the sea. They have a tripod mast, with a high pointed sail the tripod mast is made of three stout bamboos; two rising from the sides, and one from the fore part of the vessel, lashed together at the top the two feet abreast are bored at the lower end across; with holes about three inches in diameter; and these holes receive the two ends of a piece of timber, which goes across, like a main shaft; on these the two abreast parts of the tripod turn, as upon a hinge; the fore part of the mast is fixed forward, like a main stay, to a knee amidships, with a forelock: by unlocking the forelock, the mast is struck in a moment.

To this may be added a description of one of The Chinese Junks, which trade from that country to Macasser:

On my former voyage, (says our author,) when I was at Batavia, I wanted very much to have seen the inside of a Chinese junk. These are called here Wankon, and as there was one lying alongside of my ship in the road, I took the opportunity of gratifying my curiosity. As soon as I came on board, with the company that were with me, we were received with great politeness by the Chinese chiefs; and tea, confectionery, and fruits, were set before us, previous to our taking a view of any thing. This vessel carried three masts, of which the largest and middlemost was nearly of the same thickness as the mainmast of my ship the Ouwerkerk, (a ship of one hundred and fifty feet in length,) and it was made of one entire piece of timber. The length of the junk, from the exterior of the stern, to the extreme point of the head, was, according to my computation, one hundred and forty feet. The hull was separated into as many different divisions as there were merchants on board, each having a distinct place to stow his commodities in. The water was likewise distributed in several reservoirs, and being started in bulk, was drawn up by buckets, through hatches which opened in the deck. The furnace for cooking was by the larboard side of the mainmast upon the deck; for these vessels have but one deck; and we saw the victuals dressed there, in a much cleaner and neater manner, than is practised on board of European ships. At the stern were several tiers of little cabins, or huts, made of bambors, as well for the officers of the vessel, as for the merchants. Exactly in the middle between these, was the steerage; and in the center of it, was a sort of chapel, in which their Joss, or idol, was placed: they bring every year a new one with them from China, which is then placed in their temple, and the old one of the former year is taken away, and carried back to China; and they never begin to land any part of the cargo, until the image of this idol,

which is made of gold, and is about four inches high, has been sent on shore out of the junk: both on board, and on shore, they continually burn lights and incense, and in the evening some silver paper, before the idol. The rudder is not attached to the vessel by pintles and googings, but it is hung in ropes, made of cane, and is very different in shape from those we use. Their anchors are crooked pieces of timber, to which heavy stones are tied, to make them sink. The whole of their tackling, both cordage and sails, is made of cane.

The small vessels called Corrocorros, and Orembays, are thus described by the translator:

A Correcorro is a vessel fitted with outriggers, having an higharched stem and stern, like the points of a half-moon. They are chiefly used by the inhabitants of the Molucca islands, and the Dutch have fleets of them at Amboyna, which they employ as guardacostas.. They have them from a very small size, to above ten tons burthen. On the cross-pieces, which support the outriggers, are often put, fore and aft, planks, on which the people sit and paddle, besides those. who sit in the vessel on each gunnel. In smooth water they can be paddled very fast, as many hands may be employed in different ranks, or rows. They are steered with too commoodies, (broad paddles,) and not with a rudder. When they are high out of the water they use oars, but on the outriggers they always use paddles. An Orembay we conceive to be a small corrocorro, without outriggers.

The great quantity of timber, of all kinds, that is found at Amboyna, may hereafter make this province of great importance to the New World, which will probably arise during the ensuing Century in this quarter of The Globe:

The Nani Tree yields a timber that is almost imperishable; the Chirese use it for anchors, and rudders; it withstands all weathers, and yields but slowly to the powerful agency of fire. At the conclusion of Valentyn's account of the trees of Amboyna, he assures the reader, that the most laborious exertions of a long life, would not suffice to become acquainted with all the trees, which grow on the lefty and woody mountains, the extensive and impenetrable forests of Amboyna; and that the vast number, which he has noticed, seventytwo of which he gives representations, are but a small portion of the whole.

Published in Dutch at Amsterdam in 1724, in five vols. folio, with upwards of ice plates, containing a description and history of the East Indies. This work is scarce even in Holland,