We sailed from Angier roadstead, for Manila, on the afternoon of the following day, but owing to light airs we made slow progress to the island of Lucepara; here we were obliged to anchor to find sufficient depth of water to carry the ship into the straits of Banca. After sounding with several boats, there was, at length, found a channel, having about three feet more water than the ship drew. When passing through the straits we were compelled frequently to anchor, in consequence of the soundings disagreeing much with our miserable charts. A fine breeze wafted us through these waters with great rapidity, as far as Pulo Aor; from thence, until we were fairly to the northward of the great group of shoals, lying towards the coast of Palawan, we were more indebted to the current. On our passage from Sumatra to the Philippines we passed through a considerable portion of the archipelago of the east, where lie Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, the Molucca and Philippine islands; where the sea is like a smooth bed on which the islands seem to sleep in bliss--islands, in which the spice and perfume gardens of the world, are embosomed; where the bird of paradise, the golden pheasant, and a hundred other birds of brilliant plumage, have their homes amid thickets so luxuriant, and scenery so picturesque, that European strangers there find the fairy lands of their youthful dreams. But our pleasing anticipations were at times blighted with the apprehension of striking on some unknown shoal, or encountering one of those tremendous typhoons for which the northern coast of China, in the latter part of September, about the changing of the monsoons, is so notorious. Thick squally weather attended by variable winds blowing sometimes from the northern, and again from the southern quarter, wafted us rapidly to the eastward, after doubling the shoals. We proceeded onward, assisted by a strong current, until two o’clock in the morning of the thirtieth of September, when a slight gleam of light appearing through the mist, discovered to us mount and point Calavité, on the northwestern extremity of Mendora islands. Shortly afterward, we descried Luban and Cabia or (Goat) islands. At ten in the morning, we dropped anchor between the island of Corregidor, and the mountain of Marivales on the island of Luconia or Luzon. Our chronometers being useless, we were obliged for some time previously to entering the China sea, to depend on our “dead reckoning;” notwithstanding twenty-five or thirty miles a day was allowed for a current setting to the eastward, after passing Pulo Sapata, the allowance proved insufficient, as we had gained forty-five miles over our reckoning. During the past month, the diarrhœa prevailed among the crew, probably occasioned by a change of climate from cold to extreme heat, from rainy weather, excess in fruit, and frequent change in diet, but more particularly from the compulsory substitution of yams for bread.