Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/318

294 elevated. There arose, however, in the middle of a vast plain, some little hills which might be 200 or 250 toises in perpendicular height.

The north-west part of Sandwich Island terminates in several points or slips of land, advanced into the sea. We distinguished five principal ones; and near the base of one of them, is a peaked hill, which is the highest land in the island; although its perpendicular altitude does not exceed 200 or 250 toises, and consequently it is much less elevated than Captain Carteret alledges. The clearness of the weather, and the near approach we made to this little mountain, enabled us to judge of its elevation.

Some huts in the shade of the woods of cocoa-nut trees, made us hope for an interview with the inhabitants of Sandwich Island; but it was doubtless too early in the morning for them to pay us a visit, for we did not see a single individual.

The most westerly point of that island is in 2° 59′ 26″ S. lat. and 148° 29′ 15″ E. longitude. Its greatest length, from E.S.E. to W.N.W. is 15,000 toises.

At its western point we observed a little island, which Carteret had not perceived.

Ten days had elapsed without our having had an opportunity of observing the passage of the sun over the meridian; but on the 26th of July, we found