water, and before night anchored in eight fathom, clean white sand, about the middle of the bay. The next day we got up our anchor, and that afternoon came to an anchor once more near two islands, and a shoal of coral rocks that face the bay. Here I scrubb’d my ship; and finding it very improbable I should get out to sea again, sounding all the way; but finding by the shallowness of the water that there was no going out to sea to the east of the two islands that face the bay, nor between them, I return’d to the west entrance, going out by the same way I came in at, only on the east instead of the west side of the small shoal to be seen in the plan: in which channel we had ten, twelve, and thirteen fathom water, still deepning upon us till we were out at sea. The day before we came out I sent a boat ashore to the most northerly of the two islands, which is the least of them, catching many small fish in the meanwhile with hook and line. The boat’s crew returning, told me that the isle produces nothing but a sort of green, short, hard, prickly grass, affording neither wood nor fresh water; and that a sea broke between the two islands, a sign that the water was shallow. They saw a large turtle, and many skates and thornbacks, but caught none. It was August the 14th, when I sail’d out of this Bay or Sound, the mouth of which lies, as I said, in 25° 5´ designing to coast along to the N. E. till I might commodiously put in at some other part of N. Holland. In passing out we saw three water-serpents swimming about in the sea, of a yellow colour, spotted with dark brown spots. They were each about four foot long, and about the bigness of a man’s wrist, and were the first I saw on this coast, which abounds with several sorts of them. We had the winds at our first coming out at N., and the land lying north-easterly. We plied off and on, getting forward but little till the next day: when the wind coming at S. S. W. and S., we began to coast it along the shore to the northward, keeping at six or seven leagues from the shore; and sounding often, we had between forty and forty-six fathom water, brown sand, with some white shells. This 15th of August, we were in lat. 24° 41´. On the sixteenth day at noon, we were in 23° 22´. The wind coming at E. by N., we could not keep the shore aboard, but were forc’d to go farther off, and lost sight of the land. Then sounding, we had no ground with eighty fathom line; however, the wind shortly after came about again to the southward, and then we jogg’d on again to the northward, and saw many small dolphins and whales, and abundance of scuttle-shells swimming on the sea; and some water-snakes every day. The 17th we saw the land again, and took a sight of it.