Soon after I returned on board, I received a petition from the warrant-officers of the Falmouth, representing, that there was nothing for them to look after:  That the gunner had been long dead, and his stores spoiled, particularly the powder, which, by order of the Dutch, had been thrown into the sea:  That the boatswain, by vexation and distress, had lost his senses, and was then a deplorable object in a Dutch hospital:  That all his stores had been long spoiled and rotten, the roof of the storehouse having fallen in during a wet monsoon, and left them exposed many months, all endeavours to procure another place to put them in being ineffectual:  That the carpenter was in a dying condition, and the cook a wounded cripple.  For these reasons they requested that I would take them home, or at least dismiss them from their charge.  It was with the greatest regret and compassion that I told these unhappy people it was not in my power to relieve them, and that as they had received charge of stores, they must wait orders from home.  They replied, that they had never received a single order from England since they had been left here, and earnestly entreated that I would make their distress known, that it might be relieved.  They had, they said, ten years’ pay due, in the expectation of which they were grown old, and which now they would be content to forfeit, and go home sweepers, rather than continue to suffer the miseries of their present situation, which were indeed very great.  They were not suffered to spend a single night on shore, whatever was their condition, and when they were sick, no one visited them on board; they were, besides, robbed by the Malays, and in perpetual dread of being destroyed by them, as they had a short time before burnt the Siam prize.  I assured them that I would do my utmost to procure them relief, and they left me with tears in their eyes.

As I heard nothing more of the anchor and rope for which I had been in treaty, I made all ready for sea.  The ship’s company had continued healthy and sober, and been served with fresh beef every day, from the time of our first coming to an anchor in the Road; we had also some beef, and a live ox, to carry out with us.  We had now only one man upon the sick list, except a seaman, who had been afflicted with rheumatic pains ever since our leaving the Streight of Magellan:  And at six o’clock in the morning, of Tuesday the 8th of December, after a stay of just one week, we set sail.

On the 11th, at noon, we were off a small island called the Cap, between the coasts of Sumatra and Java, and several of our people fell down with colds and fluxes.  The next day, a Dutch boat came on board, and sold us some turtle, which was served to the ship’s company.  At night, being at the distance of about two miles from the Java shore, we saw an incredible number of lights upon the beach, which we supposed were intended to draw the fish near it, as we had seen the same appearance at other places.