Through the negligence of our master, by not taking due observation of the south star, we missed these islands, falling to the southward of them, within sight of the islands of Gomes Polo,[18] immediately off the great island of Sumatra, it being then the 1st of June; and we lay two or three days becalmed at the north-east side of these islands, hoping to have procured a pilot from the island of Sumatra, which was in sight, within two leagues of us.  Winter now coming on, with much tempestuous weather, we directed our course for the islands of Pulo Pinao:[19] it is to be noted that Pulo, in the Malayan language, signifies island.  We arrived there early in June, and came to anchor in a very good harbour between three islands.  At this time our men were very sick, and many of them fallen; and we determined to remain here till the winter were well over.  This place is in lat. 5 deg. 15’ N. and about five leagues from the main land, between Malacca and Tanaserim, belonging to Pegu.

[Footnote 18:  Probably the islands now called Pulo Brasse, and Pulo Way.—­E.]

[Footnote 19:  Most probably the same with Pulo Pinang, now called Prince of Wales’s Island:  the Portuguese orthography being used in the text, in which language ao, or rather aom, as in the next section, has oar sound of ang.—­E.]

We remained at this place till the end of August, our refreshments being very small, consisting only of oysters, growing on the rocks, great wilks, or conchs, and a few fish, which we took with hooks and lines.  We landed our sick upon one of these uninhabited islands, for the sake of their health, yet twenty-six of them died here, among whom was John Hall, our master, and Rainald Golding, a merchant of much honesty and discretion.  There are abundance of trees in these islands of white wood, so tall and straight as to be well fitted for masts, being often an hundred feet long.  When winter was past, and our ship fitted for going to sea, we had only now remaining thirty-three men and one boy, twenty-two only of whom were sound and fit for labour, and not above a third even of these were mariners.  Being under the necessity of seeking some place for refreshments, we went over to the main-land of Malacca, and came next day to anchor in a bay two leagues from the shore.  Then our captain, Mr James Lancaster, with his lieutenant, Mr Edmund Barker, the author of this narrative, having manned the boat, went on shore, to see if we could fall in with any inhabitants.  On landing, we could see the tracks of some barefooted people, who had been there not long before, for their foe was still burning; yet we could see no people, nor any living creature, except a fowl called oxbird, being a grey sea-bird, in colour like a snipe, but different in the beak.  Being by no means shy, we killed about eight dozen of them with small shot, and having spent the day fruitlessly, we went on board in the evening.