October 28.

At daylight (28th) land was seen bearing East 1/2 North; at noon our
latitude was nine degrees 45 minutes 32 seconds; and by the morning and
evening sights for the chronometers a current had set us to the North 81
degrees West at nearly one mile and a quarter per hour. The wind, hanging
between South-East and South-South-East, prevented our tacking to the
southward to get out of the current, which, on our first experiencing it,
was thought to have been occasioned by a set through the strait of
Rottee; it was however afterwards found that we were on the southern edge
of the current that sets to the westward, down the north coast of Timor,
and that between Rottee and Savu the current is of trifling consequence.

October 29.

The next morning land was again indistinctly seen bearing East 12 degrees
South. At ten a.m. it was clearly visible, as well as a peaked hill which
bore East 1/2 North. We were now in a current setting rapidly to the
westward and soon lost a great portion of the ground that we had been so
long toiling to gain. In the evening the wind veering to East-South-East
enabled us to steer to the southward and to get out of the influence of
the current.

October 30 to 31.

From this to the 31st we had made little progress to the eastward; but in
the afternoon a breeze set in from West-South-West and brightened our
prospects: our water being now nearly expended, no time was to be lost,
and we steered for the Strait of Rottee in order to pass through that of