Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/344

118

although there be a difference of near half a degree in latitude. The next leading mark is the line of islands marked 1, 2, to 5, extending south-south-east from the furthest extremity of the main land. I found no islands corresponding to the first three of these; but the main coast there trends south-east, and there are cliffy projections upon it which might appear like islands to a ship so far distant as not to raise the intermediate beaches. I conceive then, that the island marked 3, is the projecting point which I have named Point Bell; and that 1 and 2 are the two cliffy projections further northward. The island marked 4 will be the largest of Purdie's Isles; and in looking on, nearly in the same line, we find 5 in Lacy's Island. The island 6, or St. Francis, should lie to the west-south-west, or perhaps south-west, for since the line of the five islands is two points too much to the right, this bearing may be the same. To the south-west-by-south the large Isle St. Francis is found, in the centre of eight smaller isles which Nuyts has not distinguished. The islands 8, 9, and 10, are to be sought to the east-north-east of 5, or Lacy's Island, or rather to the north-east, two points to the left; and there we find, though not very exactly, Evans' Island and the two Isles of St. Peter. Island 7 should be to the north-west of 8, and in a direction between 4 and 9; and in that position is Lound's small Isle.

This explanation, I am aware, may be disputed, because it leaves Franklin's Isles unnoticed; and it may be objected, that had Lound's Isle been seen, the main land north of it would have been seen also. That Nuyts passed to the southward of all the islands laid down in his chart seems improbable, since he distinguished only one of the Isles of St. Francis; but if this be supposed, then 7 and 8 might be Evans' and Franklin's Isles, and 9 and 10 would be Point Brown and Cape Bauer, which lie to the south-east, instead of north-east; and in this case the islands which I suppose to be St. Peter's, and that of Lound, will not have been seen. The question is, in fact, of no importance, other than what arises from a