Note (return) — Chapter XIV · VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY CAPTAIN GEORGE ANSON, IN THE YEARS 1740-1744.1 (continued 5)

The ship having received her cargo on board, and being fitted for the sea, generally weighs from the mole of Cabite about the middle of July, taking the advantage of the westerly monsoon, which then sets in, to carry them to sea. It appears that the getting through the Boccadero to the eastward must be a troublesome navigation, and in fact it is sometimes the end of August before they get clear of the land. When they have got through this passage, and are clear of the islands, they stand to the northward of the east, in order to get into the latitude of thirty odd degrees, where they expect to meet with westerly winds, before which they run away for the coast of California.2 It is most remarkable, that by the concurrent testimony of all the Spanish navigators, there is not one port, nor even a tolerable road, as yet found out betwixt the Philippine Islands and the coast of California and Mexico; so that from the time the Manilla ship first loses sight of land, she never lets go her anchor till she arrives on the coast of California, and very often not till she gets to its southermost extremity: And therefore, as this voyage is rarely of less than six months continuance, and the ship is deep laden with merchandise and crowded with people, it may appear wonderful how they can be supplied with a stock of fresh water for so long a time. A supply indeed they have, but the reliance upon it seems at first sight so extremely precarious, that it is wonderful such numbers should risque perishing by the most dreadful of all deaths, on the expectation of so casual a circumstance. In short, their only method of recruiting their water is by the rains, which they meet with between the latitudes of 30° and 40° north, and which they are always prepared to catch: For this purpose they take to sea with them a great number of mats, which they place slopingly against the gunwale, whenever the rain descends; these mats extend from one end of the ship to the other, and their lower edges rest on a large split bamboe, so that all the water which falls on the mats drain into the bamboe, and by this, as a trough, is conveyed into ajar; and this method of supplying their water, however accidental and extraordinary it may at first sight appear, hath never been known to fail them, so that it is common, for them, when their voyage is a little longer than usual, to fill all their water jars several times over.