Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/266

244 south-west, enabled us to keep clear of the breakers.

At noon, our latitude was 22° 49′ S., and our longitude 164° 40′ E.; the southern point of New Caledonia then bearing N.N.E., distant about 20,000 toises. This extremity of that island is in 22° 30′ S. lat. and 164° 30′ E. longitude.

18th. We had lost sight of the chain of reefs, but about eleven o'clock we perceived their southern extremity, at the distance of about 10,000 toises N.W. ¼ W. Their small distance from our ship at noon, when we observed our latitude, convinced us that they extended some minutes farther to the southward than Captain Cook believed; for we saw that they reached 23° of S. lat., and 164° 31′ of E. longitude.

Those reefs, to which we approached nearer than the distance of 1,000 toises, are nearly 20,000 toises from the coast, and in that space keep the sea very tranquil: we were obliged to make several tacks in order to get out of it.

19th. We made little way in the morning of this day; for at noon, in 23° 3′ 48″ of S. lat., and 164° 8′ 20″ of E. long. we were still in sight of the western extremity of the reefs, which bore N.W. ¼ N. at the distance of about 10,000 toises. We brought the Cape to bear N.W. ¼ W. in order to double it, and to approach near the coast. We