40 VOYAGE TO THE 



chap, the manner in which reckonings were formerly kept, 



n. 



does not appear to me to exceed the limit that might 

 1825. reasonably be ascribed to those causes. 



M. La Perouse was of opinion that the islands of 

 Felix and Ambrose were those under discussion, 

 and in order to reconcile their distance from Co- 

 piapo with that given by Wafer, he has imputed to 

 him the mistake of a figure in his text, without 

 considering that it would have been next to impos- 

 sible for Davis to have pursued a direct course from 

 the Galapagos to those islands, (especially at the sea- 

 son in which his voyage was made), but on the con- 

 trary that he would be compelled to make a circuit 

 which would have brought him much nearer to 

 Easter Island ; and that Davis acquainted Dampier 

 with the situation of his discovery, which agreed 

 with that contained in Wafer's account. The alte- 

 ration in a figure, it must be admitted, is rather ar- 

 bitrary, as it has nothing to support it but the cir- 

 cumstance of the number of islands being the same. 

 A mistake certainly might have occurred, but in 

 the admission of it either party may claim it as an 

 advantage by interpreting the presumed error in a 

 way which would support their own opinions. 



At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 16th 

 of November, Easter Island was seen from the 

 mast head, bearing N. 78° W. (Mag.) fourteen or 

 sixteen leagues, and we were consequently very 

 nearly in the situation of the long looked for, small, 

 sandy island, which, had it existed within reason- 

 able limits of its supposed place, could not have 

 escaped our observation. Nothing of it however 

 was seen, nor had we any indication of the vicinity 

 of such a spot as we proceeded, though we must 



