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

as it is not abundant there. Also, there is no convenient place to lie, as the water is deep and the bottom is foul and ugly, as appeared from the cutting of our cable.

On the 12th of March, we were at the latitude of 15 degrees, 50 minutes. Just after noon, we sounded several times and had no bottom at 90 vadem fathoms, but before it was eight o'clock, we had bottom at 20, 18, 17, and 16 vadem, not half a cable's length from one another. But this did not hold, for shortly thereafter we had 19, then 24, and on the third throw no bottom at 40 vadem. The ground was small flat stones like beans, and we were at that time five or six miles from the land (where one could unfortunately fall in on a dark night) and had a brisk breeze from the East to the North, through which we got somewhat Northward along the land.

Strong currents.

On the 13th, we were at the latitude of 15 degrees, 45 minutes. After the breeze of yesterday, we received a calm from midnight until eleven o'clock before noon, through which we, as we noticed at the land, were driven Southward, and at noon were three miles from the land.

On the 14th, we were at the latitude of 15 degrees, 42 minutes, so that we had only progressed three miles towards the North, where by estimation we should have been pushed at least fifteen miles Northward and North-Eastward. Thus it appeared that there was a strong current here, and we could not say for certain whether it ran Southward or South-Westward. Early in the morning, although it was dangerous, we were not far from the beach, and looked along the land, but when it was bright day, we could barely see it.

On the 15th, we had 15 degrees, 40 minutes. I had conjectured that we would have been no less than twenty miles further towards the North-East, but found it entirely otherwise.