however with cocoa-nut trees: the flat land at the beach appeared in some places to extend inward two or three miles before the rise of the first hill; in this part, however, we saw no appearance of plantations or houses, but great fertility, and from the number of fires, we judged that the place must be well peopled. When we had approached within a mile and a half of the shore, we tacked and stood off, and the extremes of the coast then extended from N. E. by E. to W. by S. ½ S. The south-westerly extremity was a low point, distant from us about three leagues. While we were standing in for the shore, we sounded several times, but had no ground till we came within about two miles and a half, and then we had five and twenty fathom, with a soft bottom. After we had tacked, we stood off till midnight, with the wind at S.; we then tacked and stood two hours to the westward, when the wind veered to S. W. and W. S. W., and we then stood to the southward again. In the morning, we found the variation to be 1° 10ʹ W. by the amplitude, and by the azimuth 1° 27ʹ. At noon, our latitude was, by observation, 9° 45ʹ S., our longitude 234° 12ʹ W.; we were then about seven leagues distant from the land, which extended from N. 31 E., to W. S. W. ½ W. With light land breezes from W. by N. for a few hours in a morning, and sea breezes from S. S. W. and S., we advanced to the westward but slowly. At noon, on the 14th, we were between six and seven leagues from the land, which extended from N. by E., to S. 78 W.; we still saw smoke in many places by day, and fire by night, both upon the low land and the mountains beyond it. We continued steering along the shore, till the morning of the 15th, the land still appearing hilly, but not so high as it had been: the hills in general came quite down to the sea, and where they did not, we saw, instead of flats and mangrove land, immense groves of cocoa-nut trees, reaching about a mile up from the beach: there the plantations and houses commenced, and appeared to be innumerable. The houses were shaded by groves of the fan palm, or _borassus_, and the plantations, which were inclosed by a fence, reached almost to the tops of the highest hills. We saw, however, neither people nor cattle, though our glasses were continually employed, at which we were not a little surprised. We continued our course, with little variation, till nine o’clock in the morning of the 16th, when we saw the small island called ROTTE; and at noon the island SEMAU, lying off the south end of Timor, bore N. W.