What purpose that was done is far beyond my guessing. They had with them several dogs, who ran after them in the same manner as ours do in Europe.
The house or shed that we saw was very mean and poor. It consisted of four stakes driven into the ground, two being longer than the others. Over these cocoanut leaves were loosely laid; not half enough to cover it. By the cutting of these stakes, as well as of the arrows or darts which they threw at us, we concluded that they had no iron.
As soon as ever the boat was hoisted in we made sail, and steered away from this land, to the no small satisfaction of, I believe, three-fourths of our company. The sick became well and the melancholy looked gay. The greater part of them were now pretty far gone with the longing for home, which the physicians have gone so far as to esteem a disease under the name of nostalgia. Indeed I can find hardly anybody in the ship clear of its effects but the captain, Dr. Solander, and myself, and we three have ample constant employment for our minds, which I believe to be the best, if not the only remedy for it.
4th. The altered countenances of our common people were still more perceptible than they were yesterday. Two-thirds allowance had, I believe, made the chief difference with them, for our provisions were now so much wasted by keeping, that that allowance was little more than was necessary to keep life and soul together.
12th. As soon as the light was pretty clear, land was seen five or six leagues off, and we stood in for it. It was very high, rising in gradual slopes from the hills, which were in great measure covered with thick woods. Among them, however, we could distinguish bare spots of large extent, which looked as if made by art. Many fires were also seen on all parts of the hills, some very high up. At nightfall we were within a mile and a half off the beach, just abreast of a little inlet. The country seemed to answer very well to the description which Dampier has given of Timor, the land close to the beach being covered with high tapering trees, which he likens to pines (Casuarina), behind
