Off the point near which we lay at anchor, a river ran landinward; we hoisted the white flag, and caused the little boat to paddle close along the shore.  We saw smoke, indeed, in many parts of the inland, but no natives, houses or vessels.  This land is not high, chiefly level, thickly covered with trees, and with a sandy beach at the seaside.  We had taken no latitude at noon; the tide seems to run from the N.W. here; in the night at the latter end of the first watch we could take the latitude by the stars and found it to be 12 deg. 8’ South.

On Sunday the 15th do. at daybreak the wind blew hard from the E.S.E.; it was mainsail weather; we convened the Plenary Council and resolved with the same further to explore this land to the north-west and to use all possible diligence to get knowledge touching the island of Timor, as will be found more amply set forth in this day’s Resolution.

As we were weighing our anchor, a lanyard and a pulley got broken; we shaped our course to N.W. by N. and N.N.W.  Having sailed the space of about 2 miles, we came to a point, between which point and another point, a distance of about 4 miles, the land extends W.N.W. and E.S.E. with hardly any curve, and with rocks and reefs along the shore.  Off this point the surf and the breakers ran very strongly, as if there were a shoal there, seeing that the wind and the current were opposed to each other.  We therefore sailed along the coast at less than a mile’s distance from the same in 12, 11 and 10 fathom good anchoring-ground.  In many places we saw great clouds of smoke landinward, but no fruit-trees, houses, vessels or natives; the land seems to be quite wild.  Towards the evening we cast anchor in 9 fathom good anchoring-ground at about half a cannonshot’s distance from the land; the aforesaid point was E. by N. of us at upwards of half a mile’s distance; during the night we had violent squalls from the E.S.E. with a thick, foggy sky; landinward we observed a number of fires.

On Monday the 16th do. in the early morning the wind blew from the E.S.E. as before with sudden violent squalls.  As we were weighing our anchor, the lanyard-pulley broke, and shortly after our anchor-cable snapped off at about three fathom’s distance from the anchor, so that we lost the latter.  As we were setting our foresail, a musket-shot was fired from the Yacht Wesel, upon which we dropped our other anchor again; when towards the evening the weather had somewhat improved, we sent our orangbay to the Wesel, to learn the meaning of the musket-shot; when the men returned, they informed us that the Wesel had also lost an anchor, but that the buoyrope had remained entire, so that we remained here till the following day in order to recover the same.

On Tuesday the 17th do. towards noon we were informed that the buoy-rope of the Wesel had broken of its own accord close to the anchor, so that they had also lost their anchor, upon which forthwith weighing the anchors of both the Yachts, we found that the cables had also been damaged through rubbing against hidden stones and rocks.