and the ashes collected into an urn, the tragedy of his wives begins five days afterwards.  They are then all conducted to an appointed place, where the favourite wife throws a ball from her hand, and where it stops marks the place of their deaths.  Being come there, and turning their faces to the east, they all draw their daggers and stab themselves to the heart; after which they smear themselves with their own blood, and thus die.

The men of this island are excellent soldiers, being hardy, valiant, and desperate to the last degree, sticking at nothing commanded by their king, however dangerous; and, should he even command them to plunge a dagger into their own breast, or to leap from a precipice, or into a den of wild beasts, they instantly obey:  For the displeasure of their sovereign is as certain death as the point of a sword, or the fangs of a beast of prey.  Their complexion is tawny, like the other natives of India, and they go entirely naked; but their women are of a fairer hue, and are more modestly cloathed than the men.

After this relation of the Portuguese, having satisfied the Javans for the provisions they had supplied, and received a promise of good entertainment to the English when they might return to their island, Candish took leave of them, making a present to their king of three large cannon.  Next day, being the 16th of March, he made sail for the Cape of Good Hope, spending all the rest of that month, all April, and a part of May, in traversing the vast ocean between the island of Java and the southern extremity of Africa, making many observations on the appearances of the stars, the weather, winds, tides, currents, soundings, and bearings and positions of lands.

On the 11th of May, land was espied bearing N. and N. by W. and towards noon more land was seen bearing W. which was believed to be the Cape of Good Hope, being then about forty or fifty leagues from that southern promontory of Africa.[59] The wind being scanty, they stood off to the southwards till midnight; and, the wind being then fair, stood their course directly west.  On the 12th and 13th they were becalmed, with a thick and hazy atmosphere.  The weather cleared upon the 14th, when they again saw land, which proved to be Cape Falso, forty or fifty leagues short, or to the eastwards of the Cape of Good Hope.[60] This Cape Falso is easily known, having three hills directly over it, the highest in the middle, and only a little distance from each other; the ground being much lower by the sea-side.  Besides which, the Cape of Good Hope bears W. by S. from this cape.  They discovered the Cape of Good Hope on the 16th of May, observing the head-land to be considerably high, having two hummocks at the westerly point, a little off the main, and three others a little farther into the sea, yet low-land still between these and the sea.  By the Portuguese the Cape of Good Hope is said to be 2000 leagues from Java; but by their reckoning they made it only 1850 leagues, which took them just nine weeks in the run.