On the 9th, being to the eastward of King William’s Island, we plied all day between the main and other islands, having easterly winds and fair weather till seven the next morning; then we had very hard rain till eight, and saw many shoals of fish.  We lay becalmed off a pretty deep bay on New Guinea, about twelve or fourteen leagues wide, and seven or eight leagues deep, having low land near its bottom, but high land without.  The easternmost part of New Guinea seen bore east-by-south, distant twelve leagues; Cape Mabo west-south-west half-south, distant seven leagues.

At one in the afternoon it began to rain, and continued till six in the evening, so that, having but little wind and most calms, we lay still off the forementioned bay, having King William’s Island still in sight, though distant by judgment fifteen or sixteen leagues west.  We saw many shoals of small fish, some sharks, and seven or eight dolphins, but caught none.  In the afternoon, being about four leagues from the shore, we saw an opening in the land, which seemed to afford good harbour.  In the evening we saw a large fire there, and I intended to go in (if winds and weather would permit) to get some acquaintance with the natives.

Since the 4th instant that we passed Cape Mabo, to the 12th, we had small easterly winds and calms, so that we anchored several times, where I made my men cut wood, that we might have a good stock when a westerly wind should present, and so we plied to the eastward, as winds and currents would permit, having not got in all above thirty leagues to the eastward of Cape Mabo; but on the 12th, at four in the afternoon, a small gale sprang up at north-east-by-north, with rain; at five it shuffled about to north-west, from thence to the south-west, and continued between those two points a pretty brisk gale, so that we made sail and steered away north-east, till the 13th, in the morning, to get about the Cape of Good Hope.  When it was day we steered north-east half east, then north-east-by-east till seven o’clock, and, being then seven or eight leagues off shore, we steered away east, the shore trending east-by-south.  We had very much rain all night, so that we could not carry much sail, yet we had a very steady gale.  At eight this morning the weather cleared up, and the wind decreased to a fine top-gallant gale, and settled at west-by-south.  We had more rain these three days past, than all the voyage, in so short a time.  We were now about six leagues from the land of New Guinea, which appeared very high; and we saw two headlands about twenty leagues asunder, the one to the east and the other to the west, which last is called the Cape of Good Hope.  We found variation east 4 degrees.