brought to, and waited till day light should discover to us a proper place to anchor in.
6th. The Esperance had not made such progress as our ship; but was 5,100 toises to the south-west of us, at seven o'clock this morning, when we were within a small distance of the principal establishment in the island.
Here I met with the fucus, which I had before observed near New Guinea. It resembled very fine tow, crossed by little pieces, somewhat more than an inch in length; the filaments are as fine as hairs. They are frequently seen united into a sort of bundles, and are so numerous that they sully the water in the road.
General Dentrecasteaux sent his second lieutenant to wait upon the Governor of Amboyna, in order to ask permission to stop at his island. The Governor immediately summoned the Council, and gave us leave to come to an anchor; but, as the act which the second lieutenant presented to them, in the name of the Commander, had net yet been communicated to them by the government of Batavia, they were inclined to impose conditions on us, to which we could not consent. Yet it was not difficult to make them sensible, that we had anticipated, by several months, the arrival of their dispatches from Europe, which seldom reach Amboyna, till eighteen
months
