We had kept so nigh as to see it, and at farthest had not been above twenty leagues from it, but sometimes much nearer; and it is not probable that any current should set directly off from a land.

A tide indeed may; but then the flood has the same force to strike in upon the shore, as the ebb to strike off from it: but a current must have set nearly along shore, either easterly or westerly; and if anything northerly or southerly, it could be but very little in comparison of its east or west course, on a coast lying as this doth; which yet we did not perceive.

If therefore we were deceived by a current, it is very probable that the land is here disjoined, and that there is a passage through to the southward, and that the land from King William's Cape to this place is an island, separated from New Guinea by some strait, as Nova Britannia is by that which we came through.

But this being at best but a probable conjecture, I shall insist no farther upon it.
The 14th we passed by Scouten's Island, and Providence Island, and found still a very strong current setting to the north-west.

On the 17th we saw a high mountain on the main, that sent forth great quantities of smoke from its top: this volcano we did not see in our voyage out.