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When the Centurion left the port of Macao she stood for some days to the westward, and on the 1st of May they saw part of the island of Formosa, and standing thence to the southward, they, on the 4th of May about seven in the evening, discovered from the masthead five small islands, which were judged to be the Bashees, and they had afterwards a sight of Botel Tobago Xima.
We sailed from the Bashees on the 3d October, by the east of the Philippines, and on the 15th, being to the south of Luçonia, directed our course west for Mindanao. On the 16th we anchored between two small isles, in lat. 5° 10' N. four leagues from the island of Mindanao.
On the 6th August we came to anchor on the east side of the northermost of the Five Islands, or Bashees, in fifteen fathoms. These islands are from the latitude of 20° 26' to 21° 13' both N. and long. 121° 50' E. Contrary to our expectations, we found three or four large towns on the island at which we anchored.
On the 25th September, we were forced out to sea by a violent storm, which lasted till the 29th, when we made the best of our way back to the Bashees, which we reached on the 1st October.
On the 27th, being in longitude 118 30', and having got to the westward of the Bashees, according to Mr. Byron's account, our navigators hauled their wind to the north west, hoping to weather the Prata shoals but at four in the morning of the 28th, the breakers were close under their lee; at daylight they saw the island of Prata, and finding they could not weather the shoal, ran to leeward of it.
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