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Sometimes the concussion will break the column, and it falls with a terrible noise and splash into the sea. As luck would have it, we had no guns to fire into the worst one; therefore, only by an overruling Providence and a little main strength and smartness in hauling our braces, did our good ship sail clear of the nearest one, which was very large. As it passed us, or we passed it, the noise was almost deafening. Notwithstanding our scare, the sight was perfectly grand. As it was the Northeast Monsoon, we kept well to the southward and eastward up along the coast of Borneo, commonly called the Palawan Passage. We passed large numbers of beautiful islands, until we made nearly a fair wind of it, and sailed direct for the entrance to the Gulf of Siam. We came to anchor off the bar about the 24th of December: took pilot, and crossed the bar and drifted up to Bangkok.
The river is so very crooked we could not sail up; therefore, we drifted up with the tide, and
