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At noon, the northermost land in sight bore N.E. by E. 1/2 E. distant about ten leagues; our latitude, by account, was 40° 55' S. longitude from Cape West 6° 35' E. From this time we had light airs from the southward, with intervals of calm, till noon on the 23d, when our latitude, by observation, was 40° 36' 30" S. and our longitude from Cape West 6° 52' E. The eastermost point of land in sight bore E. 10 N. at the distance of seven leagues, and a bluff head or point, of which we had been abreast at noon the day before, and off which lay some rocks above water, bore S. 18 W. at the distance of six leagues.
On Monday the 30th, about half an hour after one o'clock, having made sail again to the northward for about ten hours, with a light breeze, I hauled round a small island which lay east one mile from the north-east point of the land: From this place I found the land trend away N.W. by W. and W.N.W. as far as I could see, this point being the eastermost land on the whole coast.
The eastermost island, to which we sent our boat, is low and uninhabited, but has been planted full of cocoa-nut trees by the Dutch, for the use of their vessels going between the spice islands and Batavia, as it is a kind of miracle to see any other ship in these parts except those belonging to the Dutch.
The third of Ianuary in the morning we fell with the Cape Tres puntas, and in the night passed, as our Pilots saide, by one of the Portugals castles, which is 8. leagues to the Westwards of the Cape: vpon the first sight of the Cape wee discerned it a very high land, and all growen ouer with trees, and comming neere to it, we perceiued two head lands, as it were two Bayes betwixt them, which opened right to the Westward, and the vttermost of them is the Easterne Cape, there we perceiued the middle Cape, and the Eastermost Cape: the middle Cape standeth not aboue a league from the West Cape, although the Card sheweth them to be 3. leagues one from the other: and that middle Cape hath right before the point of it a small rocke so neere to it, that it cannot be discerned from the Cape, except a man be neere to the shoare, and upon the same Cape standeth a great heape of trees, and when a man is thwart the same Cape to the Eastward, there riseth hard by it a round greene hommoke, which commeth out of the maine.
The 1 of August being Friday in the morning, we had sight of the Iland of S. Michael, being one of the Eastermost of the Azores toward which we sailed all that day, and at night hauing put foorth a Spanish flag in our main-top, that so they might the lesse suspect vs, we approched neere to the chiefe towne and road of that Iland, where we espied 3 ships riding at anker and some other vessels: all which we determined to take in the darke of the night, and accordingly attempted about 10 or 11 of the clocke, sending our boats well manned to cut their cables and hausers, and let them driue into the sea.
Shortly after we had sight of the Eastermost part of the Cape, which lieth 4. leagues from the Westermost part, and vpon the very corner thereof lie two greene places, as it were closes, and to the Westwards of the Cape the land parted from the Cape, as it were a Bay, whereby it may well be knowen.
I have mentioned on the 11th Instant, at which time we were off the Southern part of the Island, that the land seen then was rugged and mountainous; and there is great reason to believe that the same ridge of Mountains extends nearly the whole length of the Island from between the Westermost Land seen that day and the Eastermost seen on the 13th.
Two mile beyond the Eastermost towne are blacke rocks, which blacke rockes continue to the vttermost cape of the land, which is about a league off, and then the land runnes in Eastnortheast, and a sandy shoare againe: vpon these blacke rockes came downe certaine Negroes, which waued vs with a white flagge, but we perceiuing the principall place to be neere, would not stay, but bare still along the shoare: and as soone as we had opened the point of the land, we raysed another headland about a league off the point, which had a rocke lying off it into the sea, and that they thought to be the place which we sought.
This Cape, as I have observed before, is the northermost extremity of this country, and the eastermost point of a peninsula, which runs out N.W. and N.W. by N. seventeen or eighteen leagues, and of which Cape Maria Van Diemen is the westermost point.
The Eastermost Island of the two, our Men unanimously called Bashee Island, from a Liquor which we drank there plentifully every day, after we came to an Anchor at it. The other, which is the smallest of all, we called Goat Island, from the great number of Goats there; and to the Northward of them all, are two high Rocks. Orange Island, which is the biggest of them all, is not Inhabited.
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