It was now almost night and I did not care to run near the land in the dark, but clapped on a wind and stood off and on till the next morning, being September 15th, when I steered in for the island, which now appeared very plain, being high, double and treble land, very remarkable, on whatever side you view it.  See a sight of it in 2 parts, Table 5 Number 1.  At 3 in the afternoon we anchored in 14 fathom, soft black oasy ground, about a mile from the shore.  See 2 sights more of the coast in Table 5 Numbers 2 and 3, and the island itself in the particular map; which I have here inserted to show the course of the voyage from hence to the eastward; as the general map shows the course of the whole voyage.  But in making the particular map I chose to begin only with Timor, that I might not, by extending it too far, be forced to contract the scale too much among the islands, etc., of the New Guinea coast, which I chiefly designed it for.

The land by the sea on this south side is low and sandy, and full of tall straight-bodied trees like pines, for about 200 yards inwards from the shore.  Beyond that, further in towards the mountains, for a breadth of about 3 miles more or less, there is a tract of swampy mangrove land which runs all along between the sandy land of the shore on one side of it, and the feet of the mountains on the other.  And this low mangrove land is overflown every tide of flood by the water that flows into it through several mouths or openings in the outer sandy skirt against the sea.  We came to an anchor right against one of these openings; and presently I went in my boat to search for fresh water, or get speech of the natives; for we saw smokes, houses, and plantations against the sides of the mountains, not far from us.  It was ebbing water before we got ashore, though the water was still high enough to float us in without any great trouble.  After we were within the mouth we found a large salt-water lake which we hoped might bring us up through the mangroves to the fast land:  but before we went further I went ashore on the sandy land by the seaside, and looked about me; but saw there no sign of fresh water.  Within the sandy bank the water forms a large lake:  going therefore into the boat again we rowed up the lake towards the firm land, where no doubt there was fresh water, could we come at it.  We found many branches of the lake entering within the mangrove land but not beyond it.  Of these we left some on the right hand and some on the left, still keeping in the biggest channel; with still grew smaller, and at last so narrow that we could go no farther, ending among the swamps and mangroves.  We were then within a mile of some houses of the Indian inhabitants and the firm land by the sides of the hills:  but the mangroves thus stopping our way, we returned as we came:  but it was almost dark before we reached the mouth of the creek.  It was with much ado that we got out of it again; for it was now low-water, and there went a rough short sea on the bar; which however we passed over without any damage and went aboard.