[Early Australian Voyages by John Pinkerton]@TWC D-Link bookEarly Australian Voyages CHAPTER XXI: REMARKS UPON THE VOYAGE 61/148
In the afternoon it fell quite calm, and when we had a little wind, it was so unconstant, flying from one point to another, that I could not without difficulty get through the islands where I designed; besides, I found a current setting to the southward, so that it was betwixt five and six in the evening before I passed through the islands, and then just weathered little Watela, whereas I thought to have been two or three leagues more northerly.
We saw the day before, betwixt two and three, a spout but a small distance from us, it fell down out of a black cloud, that yielded great store of rain, thunder and lightning; this cloud hovered to the southward of us for the space of three hours, and then drew to the westward a great pace, at which time it was that we saw the spout, which hung fast to the cloud till it broke, and then the cloud whirled about to the south-east, then to east-north-east, where meeting with an island, it spent itself and so dispersed, and immediately we had a little of the tail of it, having had none before.
Afterwards we saw a smoke on the island Kosiway, which continued till night. On New Year's Day we first descried the land of New Guinea, which appeared to be high land, and the next day we saw several high islands on the coast of New Guinea, and ran in with the main land.
The shore here lies along east-south-east and west-north-west.
It is high even land, very well clothed with tall flourishing trees, which appeared very green, and gave us a very pleasant prospect.
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