Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/229

] tice to stop our course in time. In fact, as the night was extremely dark, it would have been impossible to have seen the breakers soon enough to avoid them: besides, the wind blowing very fresh, the sea ran so high all round us, that we could not soon enough have distinguished the waves that broke on the reefs from the rest. Beyond these reefs, and near two leagues distant from them, we saw an island, which bore, when we made it, south 28° west, and to which I gave the name of Citizen Beaupré, engineer-geographer to our expedition. This island lies in the latitude of 20° 14′ south, longitude 163° 47′ east. It is very low, and about 1500 toises long. We afterwards discovered some rocks bearing south 21° east; and a little while after some others towards the south.

It is to be remarked, that the currents set us to the north about twenty-four minutes a day, when we were near Tierra del Espiritu Santo, and passing between that archipelago and new Caledonia. Undoubtedly this is owing to the position of the land, which, while it changes the direction of the currents determined by the general winds, increases their strength.

About one o'clock in the afternoon we got sight of the high mountains of New Caledonia to the south-west; and at half-after four we were