9th &10th September 1770

[In the Timor Sea]

9th.  Light Airs and Clear weather the most part of this 24 Hours. In the evening found the Variation by several Azimuths to be 0 degrees 12 minutes West, and by the Amplitude 0 degrees 5 minutes West. At Noon we were by observation in the Latitude of 9 degrees 46 minutes South, Longitude 232 degrees 7 minutes West. Course and distance sail'd since yesterday at Noon South 78 degrees 45 minutes West, 52 Miles. For these 2 days past we have steer'd due West, and yet we have by observation made 16 Miles Southing--6 Miles Yesterday and 10 to-day; from which it should seem that there is a Current setting to the Southward and Westward withall, as I should suppose.

10th. Light Airs Easterly, except in the morning, when we had it at North; at sunset found the Variation to be 0 degrees 2 minutes West, at the same time saw, or thought we saw, very high land bearing North-West, and in the Morning saw the same appearances of land in the same Quarter, which left us no room to doubt but what it was land, and must be either the Island of Timor land or Timor, but which of the 2 I cannot as yet determine.* (* This was Timor. What Cook calls Timor land is probably Timor Laut, another name for the principal island of the Tenimber Group.) At Noon we were by Observation in the Latitude of 10 degrees 1 minute South, which was 15 Miles to the Southward of that given by the Log. Longitude in per Observation 233 degrees 27 minutes West.

Joseph Banks Journal

9th.  Light breezes and almost calm. Myself in my small boat a shooting killd 3 dozn. of Bobies and gannets; the last provd to be the Pelicanus Piscator of Linnaeus. At night a strong appearance of very high Land was observd to the Westward which causd many different opinions; the Seamen however in general insisted on its being clouds, an opinion which its unusual hight above the horizon considerd with respect to the faintness with which it appeard seemd much to favour.

10th.  Quite calm. The appearance of Land to the West was again seen and most of the seamen by it Convincd that it realy was such; some however still held to their former opinion. Many Dolphins were about the ship and one shark was caught at Sunset. The Land appeard again in exactly the same place which at last convinc'd our most sturdy unbeleivers.

Sydney Parkinson Journal

9th.  We had light breezes, or calms, all day. Mr. Banks went out in the small boat, and shot between thirty and forty large boobies, which prey upon the flying-fish. In the evening we saw land to the N. W. of us, and supposed it to be about twenty leagues distant, which being very high, we thought, at first, it had been clouds. Latitude 9° 46’.

10th.  We had light breezes or calms all day, and were still at a great distance from land. We made an observation of the sun this day, and of the moon at night, to determine the longitude, and found ourselves in 233° 33’ west from London; and our latitude, by observation, was 10° 1’ south, by which we were certain that a current had driven us to the south, as we kept our course to the west. We saw several sharks, dolphins, and barracootas, about the ship, and caught a large shark.