of the lead; in the afternoon we saw the ships in the road of Batavia, being between thirty and forty sail great and small; and at six in the evening we came to anchor, in between six and seven fathoms, in the long-desired port of Batavia, in lat 6 deg. 10’ S. and long. 252 deg. 51’ W. from London.[231] We had here to alter our account of time, having lost almost a day in going round the world so far in a western course.

[Footnote 231:  The latitude in the text is sufficiently accurate, but the longitude is about a degree short.  It ought to have been 253 deg. 54’ W. from Greenwich—­E.]

After coming in sight of Batavia, and more especially after some sloops or small vessels had been aboard of us, I found that I was quite a stranger to the dispositions and humours of our people, though I had sailed so long with them.  A few days before they were perpetually quarrelling, and a disputed lump of sugar was quite sufficient to have occasioned a dispute.  But now, there was-nothing but hugging and shaking of hands, blessing their good stars, and questioning if such a paradise existed on earth; and all because they had arrack for eight-pence a gallon, and sugar for a penny a pound.  Yet next minute they were all by the ears, disputing about who should put the ingredients together; for the weather was so hot, and the ingredients so excessively cheap, that a little labour was now a matter of great importance among them.

Soon after our arrival at Batavia we proceeded to refit our ships, beginning with the Marquis; but on coming down to her bends, we found both these and the stern and stern-port so rotten and worm-eaten, that on a survey of carpenters she was found incapable of being rendered fit for proceeding round the Cape of Good Hope, on which we had to hire a vessel to take in her loading.  We then applied ourselves to refit the other ships, which we did at the island of Horn, not being allowed to do so at Onrust, where the Dutch clean and careen all their ships.  We hove down the Duke and Duchess and Bachelor, the sheathing of which ships were very much worm-eaten in several places.  In heaving down, the Duchess sprung her fore-mast, which we replaced by a new one.  When the ships were refitted, we returned to Batavia road, where we rigged three of them, and sold the Marquis, after taking out all her goods and stores, and distributing her officers and men into the others.  During our stay at Batavia, the weather was exceedingly hot, and many of our officers and men fell sick, among whom I was one, the prevalent disease being the flux, of which the master of the Duke and gunner of the Duchess died, and several of our men.  A young man belonging to the Duchess, having ventured into the sea to swim, had both his legs snapped off by a shark, and while endeavouring to take him on board, the shark bit off the lower part of his belly.  We were allowed free access to the town and markets, yet found it difficult to procure salt-meat, so that we had to kill bullocks for ourselves, and pickled the flesh, taking out all the bones.  Arrack, rice, and fowls were very cheap, and we bought beef for two stivers, or two-pence a pound.