That same day, the 28th September, I and four more of our men were sent off for Batavia in a Chinese sloop, the other five men being promised to be sent after us in a short time, but we never heard of them afterwards.  We sailed westwards till we came to the island of Lancas, in lat. 5 deg. 27’ S. and by my estimation, 2 deg. 21’, or 155 miles W. from Amboina.  We then steered W. by N. till we made two islands called the Cabeses, whence we procured some hundred cocoa nuts.  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.  Off this island we met our own bark which had brought us from America to Amboina, the Dutch having fitted her up with a main-mast and converted her into a very good vessel.  This island is in lat. 5 deg. 23’ S. and nearly W. by N. from the island of Lancas, about forty-five miles distant, and has a shoal extending about two miles from the shore.  To the S.W. of this is the other island of Cabeses, a pretty high island, on which the Dutch always keep a corporal and two soldiers, who go two or three times all over the isle to see that no cloves are planted, and if they find any to cut them down and burn them, lest any other nation might be able to procure that commodity, in which case Amboina would become of little value, as cloves are its only valuable product.

We next passed by the S. end of the island of Bouton, or Booton, which is pretty large, and in the lat. of 5 deg. 45’ S. We steered W. from thence, between the islands Celebes and Zalayer or Salayr.  The S.W. leg or peninsula of Celebes is very high land.  Celebes is composed of very high land, very well inhabited, being a very large island, extending through seven degrees of latitude.  On the west side of its southern end the Dutch have a factory named Macasser, where they have a fortress of about seventy guns, and a garrison of 600 or 700 Dutch soldiers.  The chief product is rice, with which they supply most of their eastern islands from hence.  There are said to be gold-mines in this island, of which the Dutch are not yet masters, as the inhabitants are often at war with them, and have hitherto been able to keep them from those parts of the island.  Between the south end of Celebes and the island of Salayr there are three small low islands, and the best channel is through between the island next to Salayr, and another small isle to the northward.  This is called the second passage, the first, third, and fourth of these passages being very dangerous, so that ships generally avoid them if possible.  I would willingly give an account of every island I have occasion to mention, but as that is not in my power, I must rest satisfied with what I am able to say consistent with truth.