Note (return) — Chapter XII · VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY CAPTAIN GEORGE SHELVOCKE, IN 1719-1722.

We directed our course from Formosa for the neighbouring coast of China, and found ourselves on the 6th at the mouth of the river Loma,3 in twelve fathoms water, but the weather was so hazy that we could not ascertain where we were. Seeing abundance of fishing boats, we tried every method we could think of to induce some of the fishermen to come on board to pilot us to Macao, but found this impracticable, as we could not understand each other. We were therefore obliged to keep the land close on board, and to anchor every evening. This was a prodigious fatigue to our men, who were so universally ill that we could hardly find any one able to steer the ship. We were bewildered in a mist during four days, and much surprised by seeing a great many islands, omitted in our charts, on some of which we saw large fortifications. This made us believe that the current had carried us beyond our port, and occasioned much dejection of spirits; for, though the sea was covered with fishing boats, we could get no one to set us right, or to give us any directions we could understand.