The wind now became very variable, but chiefly from the south-west quarter.  On the 2d of August, it shifted to west-north-west, and we stood to the south-west.  On the 4th, we made the land, bearing west-south-west twelve leagues; the next morning, it bore from west-south-west to west, and at noon we saw it from south-west to west half south; this proved to be the north end of the island of St. John, and is in latitude 9 deg. 30’ north; longitude 126 deg. 32’ east.  From the 31st of July to this time, we had been set to the southward one hundred miles.  The wind being again set in at south-west, we could only now stand to the southward, and avail ourselves of the strong southerly current which we every day experienced so much assistance from, and which we had some reason to hope would lead us to the southward of Mindanao.

If this current should fail us, we could not expect to get to the southward, but must then have steered along the coast to the northward, as far as Cape Espiritu Sancto, and enter the Strait of Manilla, where probably we might have found some settlement, short of that port, capable of assisting us with such relief as might have enabled us to proceed on our voyage.

On the 6th, we saw the coast of Mindanao from south to north-west by west; it is very high land in the interior parts of the country, but moderately so on the sea-coast, which makes it rather difficult to judge of your distance from it.  The current to the southward still continued from thirty to fifty miles in twenty-four hours.

On the 8th, in standing to the southward, we saw an island bearing south five or six leagues; this, from its situation, must have been the island of Palmas; it seemed to lie east by south, sixteen or seventeen leagues distant from the south-east point of Mindanao; it is a high round hummock at the north-east end, and runs out in a low point to the south-west, on which are a number of round lumps or hillocks, that at five leagues distance appear like rocks just above water.  Its latitude is 5 deg. 33’ north, and its longitude is 127 deg. 00’ east.  Being now to the southward of Cape Augustine, which we never saw distinctly, we carried all the sail possible to get to the westward.  On the 9th in the afternoon, the south-east point of Mindanao bore north 20 deg. 00’ west, five or six leagues distant.

At day-light the next morning, the coast of Mindanao bore from west by north to north by east, and a high island west by south, off shore five leagues:  at noon, the south point of Mindanao bore north 76 deg. 00’ west:  we intended to have passed to the south ward of this island, but the wind inclining from that direction, we could not weather it, we therefore bore away, intending to pass between it and Mindanao.