Travel Reference
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broken, and tossed the ship so that she would not answer her helm. These ripplings com-
monly lasted ten or twelve minutes, and then the sea became as still and smooth as a mill-
pond. We sounded often when in the midst of them, but found no ground, neither could we
perceive that they drove us any way. We had in one night several of these tides, that came
mostly from the west, and the wind being from that quarter we commonly heard them a long
time before they came, and sometimes lowered our topsails, thinking it was a gust of wind.
They were of great length, from north to south, but their breadth not exceeding 200 yards,
and they drove a great pace. For though we had little wind to move us, yet these would soon
pass away, and leave the water very smooth, and just before we encountered them we met a
great swell, but it did not break.' Some time afterwards, I learnt that an earthquake had been
felt on the coast of Gilolo the very day we had encountered these curious waves.
When daylight came, we saw the land of Gilolo a few miles off, but the point was unfor-
tunately a little to windward of us. We tried to brace up all we could to round it, but as we
approached the shore we got into a strong current setting northward, which carried us so
rapidly with it that we found it necessary to stand off again, in order to get out of its influen-
ce. Sometimes we approached the point a little, and our hopes revived; then the wind fell,
and we drifted slowly away. Night found us in nearly the same position as we had occupied
in the morning, so we hung down our anchor with about fifteen fathoms of cable to prevent
drifting. On the morning of the 7th we were however, a good way up the coast, and we now
thought our only chance would be to get close in-shore, where there might be a return cur-
rent, and we could then row. The prau was heavy, and my men very poor creatures for work,
so that it took us six hours to get to the edge of the reef that fringed the shore; and as the
wind might at any moment blow on to it, our situation was a very dangerous one. Luckily, a
short distance off there was a sandy bay, where a small stream stopped the growth of the
coral; and by evening we reached this and anchored for the night. Here we found some
Galela men shooting deer and pigs; but they could not or would not speak Malay, and we
could get little information from them. We found out that along shore the current changed
with the tide, while about a mile out it was always one way, and against us; and this gave us
some hopes of getting back to the point, from which we were now distant twenty miles.
Next morning we found that the Galela men had left before daylight, having perhaps some
vague fear of our intentions, and very likely taking me for a pirate. During the morning a
boat passed, and the people informed us that, at a short distance further towards the point,
there was a much better harbour, where there were plenty of Galela men, from whom we
might probably get some assistance.
