Their canoes were of various sizes; the bottom is hollowed out of the trunk of a tree, and they were generally raised with an upper work of split bamboo, which was set very close and light; they had an outrigger on each side to balance them; they had also a larger boat on which they mounted three small pieces of cannon, of brass; these pieces, I was told, were of their own manufactory, which I could readily believe, as they were of a very different make to any I had ever seen; they were very long, and of narrow bore, and were mounted with a swivel, upon posts, placed one at each end, and one in the center of the boat; they had a long wooden tail fixed to them, by which they turn about and point them.

These boats will contain and conceal a great number of men; they were commonly covered with an awning of split bamboo, raised some distance above the gunwall, like the ridge of a house.  Their mast was composed of three bamboos, two of which stood as a pair of sheers, and required no shrouds; the third stood forward, and answered the purpose of a stay; and upon this mast they set a square sail.  On Hummock Island, as well as the south side of Mindanao, were many pleasant looking spots, which appeared to be cultivated land.

When we left these islands, the wind being from the westward, we steered to the southward.  At seven o’clock in the morning, we saw a small island, bearing south-west; at ten, we saw two more, and by four in the afternoon of the 15th, there were seven islands in sight, bearing from south-west to west-north-west:  at six o’clock we saw a large island a-head, with a number of smaller ones, and some single rocks of considerable height above the water, lying off it:  at noon, we were near enough to observe, that several of the rocks and smaller islands had reefs lying from them, on which the sea broke.  Here we found a strong south-west set of current; we sounded, and had seventy-two fathoms, over a bottom of coarse sand and coral.

One of the small islands was distant little more than a mile.  This island, which is very high land, is that laid down in the chart by the name of Poolo Sanguy:  we observed the latitude of its north end to be 3 deg. 44’ north, and its longitude 125 deg. 11’ east; there is a continued chain lying in a north and south direction from the south coast of Mindanao thus far to the southward; and, by such charts as I have seen, this chain seems to be continued from Poolo Sanguy quite over to the north-east point of Celebes.  Poolo Sanguy is a large tract of land.

The wind now inclined from the southward, otherwise we should have stood on, with a view of reaching some of the Dutch settlements amongst the Molucca Islands, in order to endeavour to procure some sort of supply of provisions, as we were now reduced very low; but with this southerly wind we could only stand to the westward and push for the Strait of Macassar:  the wind continued from the southward and sometimes from the south-east, but in very light airs.