23d.-Fine red sunrise; the island we left last evening barely visible behind us.

The Goram prau about a mile south of us.

They have no compass, yet they have kept a very true course during the night.
Our owner tells me they do it by the swell of the sea, the direction of which they notice at sunset, and sail by it during the night.

In these seas they are never (in fine weather) more than two days without seeing land.

Of course adverse winds or currents sometimes carry them away, but they soon fall in with some island, and there are always some old sailors on board who know it, and thence take a new course.