Page:Early voyages to Terra Australis.djvu/272

 116 SOME PARTICULARS OF THE VOYAGE

We also found recorded in the notes of the above-men- tioned skipper, Willem de Vlamingh, that on the island of Mony, lying 10° south latitude and 60-70 miles without Sunda Strait, by which he steered on his way from the South Land hither, trees are to be found fit for masts of ships. No further explanation, however, being given as to their abundance or scarcity, or the kind of the wood, — a small piece only, about two spans in length and less than a finger's breadth in thickness, having been brought to us, and the skipper of the Nijptang, and the gezaghebber of the JVeseltJe, son of the old Vlamingh, knowing nothing whatever about the subject, we, in order to settle the point once for all, thought it not unadvisable to set on foot a further investi- gation, and accordingly once more despatched the galiot JVcseltje on the 11th of May, in order that a more minute survey might be taken of the island, adding at the same time a reinforcement of eight native soldiers, with such in- structions for the steersman Cornelis de Vlamingh, as are to be found in the letter-book under that date, and also under Batavia. According to the diary of the same steersman from May 12 to June 17, kept in the journey, in which they nearly got wrecked, and owing to the heavy breakers could nowhere eflfect a landing, and from the vessel and boat could not perceive anything else but thick brushwood and a few small crooked trees, none of which was either straight or more than three fathoms long ; so that no expectation re- mained of finding there anything useful.