Derde reys, gedaan voor de Engelsche Maatschappy na Oost-Indien, met drie scheepen, de Draak, Hector, en ...

at the South shore, as there is a sandbank on the North shore about two miles from the South shore, where the sea breaks. Thus we arrived at the roadstead an area of water near the shore where ships can anchor, having ten fathoms of water, and cast anchor on good ground. Sierra Leone lay West-North-West of us, the Northern point of the Bay was North-North-West, and the aforementioned sandbank was North-North-East of us.

Note that when one enters this bay and is between the North and South of the shoal, the South point—for Sierra Leone is the Northern point of the Southern land that forms the bay or river—and the island of Verde lie towards the North-West and South-East.

How they found it there.

On that same day after noon, we noticed that we were being signaled to come ashore, upon which I sent out my boat. They let two of our men go ashore as hostages and came to our board with four Negroes black men, who promised us refreshments. In the meantime, my sloop sounded the ground between us and the sandbank and found it reasonably shallow; for being not two boat-lengths from that bank, there was only two fathoms of water.

(Warning regarding the observation of variations).

One must know that all our notes on the changes that we observed from two degrees Northern latitude until here did not work out well; for at every interval, with respect to a meridian line eastward, one must add thirty miles, and subtract thirty miles from the Western ones. For we found, upon approaching the land, that we had drifted much further to the West than we had thought. I even thought, beyond that error, that we were just as far West, or even further West, as our skippers claimed. Be that as it may, I request that each person believe their own findings, as the instruments (Wiskonstige Werktuygen mathematical tools) can deceive even the most learned men.

And with the

On the 7th of the same, Negroes came with my boat