Mr Banks and Dr Solander recovered slowly at their country-house, which was not only open to the sea breeze, but situated upon a running stream, which greatly contributed to the circulation of the air:  But I was now taken ill myself; Mr Sporing, and a seaman who had attended Mr Banks, were also seized with intermittents; and, indeed, there were not more than ten of the whole ship’s company that were able to do duty.

We proceeded however in rigging the ship, and getting water and stores aboard:  The water we were obliged to procure from Batavia, at the rate of six shillings and eight-pence a leager, or one hundred and fifty gallons.

About the 26th, the westerly monsoon set in, which generally blows here in the night from the S.W., and in the day from the N.W. or N. For some nights before this, we had very heavy rain, with much thunder; and in the night between the 25th and 26th, such rain as we had seldom seen, for near four hours without intermission.  Mr Banks’s house admitted the water in every part like a sieve, and it ran through the lower rooms in a stream that would have turned a mill:  He was by this time sufficiently recovered to go out, and upon his entering Batavia the next morning, he was much surprised to see the bedding every where hung out to dry.

The wet season was now set in, though we had some intervals of fair weather.[125] The frogs in the ditches, which croak ten times loader than any frogs in Europe, gave notice of rain by an incessant noise that was almost intolerable, and the gnats and musquitos, which had been very troublesome even during the dry weather, were now become innumerable, swarming from every plash of water like bees from a hive; they did not, however, much incommode us in the day, and the stings, however troublesome at first, never continued to itch above half an hour, so that none of us felt in the day the effects of the wounds they had received in the night.

[Footnote 125:  They reckon two seasons or monsoons in this climate.  The east, or good one, begins about the end of April, and continues till about the beginning of October.  During this, the trade-winds usually blow from the south-east and east-south-east, and there is fine weather, with a clear sky.  The west, or bad monsoon, begins about the end of November, or commencement of December, and continues till towards the end of February, during which the winds are mostly from the west.  This is the most unhealthy season.  It has been remarked, but not explained, that the periods of the monsoons are not so regular as they once were, so that neither their beginning nor end can be so confidently depended on.  The months not included in either of the monsoons are called shifting-months.—­E.]

On the 8th of December, the ship being perfectly refitted, and having taken in most of her water and stores, and received the sick on board, we ran up to Batavia Road, and anchored in four fathom and a half of water.[126]