distance off to sea, and about 5 leagues farther south we saw a great bay, being then in lat. 4 deg. 27’ N. The 16th we met a French ship belonging to Harfleur, which robbed our pinnace:  we sent a letter by him.  This night we saw another spot on the sun at his going down.  Towards evening we were athwart the mouth of a river, right over which was a high tuft of trees.  The 17th we anchored in the mouth of the river, when we found the land to be Cape Palmas, there being a great ledge of rocks between us and the Cape, a league and half to sea, and an island off the point or foreland of the Cape.  We then bore to the west of the Cape, and as night came on could see no more of the land, except that it trended inwards like a bay, in which there ran a stream or tide as it had been the Thames.  This was on the change day of the moon.

The 19th December, a fair temperate day, with the wind S. we sailed east, leaving the land astern of us to the west, all the coast appearing low like islands to the east of Cape Palmas, and trending inwards like a great bay or sound.  We went east all night, and in the morning were only three or four leagues from shore.  The 20th we were off Rio de las Barbas.  The 21st we continued along shore; and three or four leagues west of Cape Three Points, I found the bay to be set deeper than it is laid down by four leagues.  At 4 P.M. the land began to shew high, the first part of it being covered by palm trees.  The 24th, still going along shore, the land was very low and full of trees to the water side.  At noon we anchored off the Rio de Boilas, where we sent the boat towards the shore with our merchants, but they durst not put into the river, because of a heavy surf that broke continually on the bar.  The 28th we sailed along shore, and anchored at night in seven fathoms, to avoid being put back by a current setting from E.S.E. from Papuas.

At noon on the 29th we were abreast of Ardrah, and there we took a caravel, the people belonging to which had fled to the land.  She had nothing in her except a small quantity of palm oil and a few roots.  Next morning our captain and merchants went to meet the Portuguese, who came off in a boat to speak with them.  After some communing about ransoming the caravel, the Portuguese promised to give for her some bullocks and elephants teeth, and gave us then one tooth and one bullock, engaging to bring the rest next day.  Next day being the 1st January 1591, our captain went a-land to speak with the Portuguese, but finding them to dissemble, he came on board again, when presently we unrigged the caravel and set her on fire before the town.  We then set sail and went along the coast, where we saw a date tree, the like of which is not on all that coast, by the water side.  We also fell a little aground at one place.  Thus we went on to Villalonga where we anchored.  The 3d we came to Rio de Lagoa, or Lagos Creek, where our merchants went to land, finding 3 fathoms on the