We sailed from Bantam, homeward bound, on the 1st November 1616.  The 5th January 1617, I was unable to weigh our anchor, owing to the violence of the wind, to follow the Dragon to Penguin island.  Ships that go round the Cape of Good Hope from India, at this season of the year, ought not to anchor short of Saldanha road, [Table Bay,] but ought to bear to leeward for Penguin island, and anchor there with two anchors at once, till the wind serve.  In December, January, and February, the S.S.E. wind blows there with great violence from new to full moon.  Yet I hold it dangerous to neglect this place, trusting to refreshments at St Helena, a certainty for an uncertainty; as the obscurity of the sun and moon, owing to thick mists at this season, may disappoint the most experienced navigators, and occasion the loss of ship, cargo, and men.  While at the Cape, Corey came down with three sheep, and promised more, but went away in great haste to his wife and family, who dwelt now farther from the bay than formerly.  It appears that the Hollanders had frightened the natives, by landing and going up the country with above an hundred men at once.  Owing to this, our chief refreshment here was fresh fish.

The 9th April 1617, we passed through great quantities of sea-weeds, called seragasso, which float in long ridges or rows along with the wind, and at considerable distances from each other.  This plant has a leaf like samphire, but not so thick, and carries a very small yellow berry.  It reaches from 22 deg. 20’ to 32 deg. both of N. latitude.  We anchored in the Downs on the 29th of May 1617.

3. Brief Notice of the Ports, Cities, and Towns, inhabited by, and traded with, by the Portuguese between the Cape of Good Hope and Japan, in 1616.

The river of Quame, or Cuamo, on the eastern coast of Africa, where they are said to trade yearly for gold, elephants teeth, ambergris, and slaves. Mozambique, an island on the same coast, where they trade for gold, ambergris, and slaves, in barter for iron, lead, tin, and Cambay commodities, Magadoxo, which has abundance of elephants teeth, some ambergris, and various kinds of drugs.  From these ports they trade yearly to Cambay, the Red Sea, and other places, observing the monsoons, which blow W. in April, May, June, July, August, and part of September, and the E. monsoon prevails an the other months.  A few days between the cessation of one monsoon and the commencement of the other, the winds are variable, attended by calms, but become regular in a few days.  To the east of Sumatra, however, the two monsoons continue only five months each way, the two intermediate months having variable winds.