While they were at anchor at this village of Dyguacam, there came to
them a parao in which there was a negro named Bastiam, who asked for a
flag and a passport for the Governor of Dyguacam, and they gave him all
this and other things for a present. They asked the said Bastiam, who
spoke Portuguese sufficiently well, since he had been in Molucca, where
he had become a Christian, if he would go with them and show them
Borneo; he said he would be very willing, and when the departure arrived
he hid himself, and, seeing that he did not come, they set sail from
this port of Dyguacam on July 21st to seek for Borneo. As they set sail
there came to them a parao, which was coming to the port of Dyguacam,
and they took it, and in it they took three Moors, who said they were
pilots and that they would take them to Borneo.
Having got these Moors, they steered along this island to the southwest,
and fell in with two islands at its extremity, and passed between them;
that on the north side is named Bolyna, and that on the south Bamdym.
Sailing to the west-southwest a matter of fourteen leagues, they fell in
with a white bottom, which was a shoal below the water; and the black
men they carried with them told them to draw near to the coast of the
island, as it was deeper there, and that was more in the direction of
Borneo, for from that neighborhood the island of Borneo could already be
sighted. This same day they reached and anchored at some islands, to
which they gave the name of islets of St. Paul, which was a matter of
two and a half or three leagues from the great island of Borneo, and
they were in about 7 deg. at the south side of these islands. In the island
of Borneo there is an exceedingly big mountain to which they gave the
name of Mount St. Paul; and from thence they navigated along the coast
of Borneo to the southwest, between an island and the island of Borneo
itself; and they went forward on the same course and reached the
neighborhood of Borneo, and the Moors they had with them told them that
there was no Borneo, and the wind did not suffer them to arrive thither,
as it was contrary. They anchored at an island which is there, and which
may be eight leagues from Borneo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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