At noon, I observed, in latitude 16 deg. 4' S, and found I had made a course, from yesterday noon, N 62 deg. W, distance 62 miles; longitude, by account, from Tofoa, 7 deg. 42' W. [Sidenote: 1789. MAY 8.] The land I passed yesterday, and the day before, is a group of islands, 14 or 16 in number, lying between the latitude of 16 deg. 26' S and 17 deg. 57' S, and in longitude, by my account, 4 deg. 47' to 7 deg. 17' W from Tofoa; three of these islands are very large, having from 30 to 40 leagues of sea-coast. [Sidenote: Saturday 9.] Saturday, 9th May. Fine weather, and light winds from the N E to E by S. This afternoon we cleaned out the boat, and it employed us till sun-set to get every thing dry and in order. Hitherto I had issued the allowance by guess, but I now got a pair of scales, made with two cocoa-nut shells; and, having accidentally some pistol-balls in the boat, 25[*] of which weighed one pound, or 16 ounces, I adopted one, as the proportion of weight that each person should receive of bread at the times I served it. I also amused all hands, with describing the situation of New Guinea and New Holland, and gave them every information in my power, that in case any accident happened to me, those who survived might have some idea of what they were about, and be able to find their way to Timor, which at present they knew nothing of, more than the name, and some not that. [*] It weighed 272 grains. At night I served a quarter of a pint of water, and half an ounce of bread, for supper. In the morning, a quarter of a pint of cocoa-nut milk, and some of the decayed bread, for breakfast; and for dinner, I divided the meat of four cocoa-nuts, with the remainder of the rotten bread, which was only eatable by such distressed people. At noon, I observed the latitude to be 15 deg. 47' S; course since yesterday N 75 deg. W; distant 64 miles; longitude made, by account, 8 deg. 45' W. [Sidenote: 1789 MAY 10.] [Sidenote: Sunday 10.] Sunday, May the 10th. The first part of this day fine weather; but after sun-set it became squally, with hard rain, thunder, and lightning, and a fresh gale; wind E by S, S E, and S S E. In the afternoon I got fitted a pair of shrouds for each mast and contrived a canvass weather cloth round the boat, and raised the quarters about nine inches, by nailing on the seats of the stern sheets, which proved of great benefit to us.