2 cook's SECOND VOYAGE JUNE, 



inhabitants upon it. Its latitude is 16° 46' South ; 

 longitude 154° 8' West. 



From this day to the 16th, we met with nothing 

 remarkable, and our course was West southerly ; the 

 winds variable from the North round by the East to 

 S. W. attended with cloudy, rainy, unsettled weather, 

 and a southerly swell. We generally brought to, or 

 stood upon a wind, during night; and in the day 

 made all the sail we could. About half an hour after 

 sun-rise this morning, land was seen from the top- 

 mast head, bearing N. N. E. We immediately altered 

 the course and steering for it, found it to be another 

 reef island, composed of five or six woody islets, 

 connected together by sand banks and breakers, in- 

 closing a lake, into which we could see no entrance. 

 We ranged the West and N. W. coasts, from its 

 southern to its northern extremity, which is about 

 two leagues ; and so near the shore, that at one time 

 we could see the rocks under us ; yet we found no 

 anchorage, nor saw we any signs of inhabitants. 

 There were plenty of various kinds of birds, and the 

 coast seemed to abound with fish. The situation of 

 this isle is not very distant from that assigned by 

 Mr. Dalrymple for La Sagitaria, discovered by Quiros; 

 but, by the description the discoverer has given of it, 

 it cannot be the same. For this reason, I looked 

 upon it as a new discovery, and named it Palmerston 

 Island, in honour of Lord Palmerston, one of the 

 Lords of the Admiralty. It is situated in latitude 

 18* 4' South, longitude 163° 10' West. 



At four o'clock in the afternoon we left this isle, 

 and resumed our course to the W. by S. with a fine 

 steady gale easterly, till noon on the 20th, at which 

 time, being in latitude 18° 50', longitude 1C8° 52', 

 we thought we saw land to S. S. W. and hauled up 

 for it accordingly. But two hours after, we dis- 

 covered our mistake, and resumed our course W. by S. 

 Soon after we saw land from the mast-head in the 

 same direction ; and, as we drew nearer, found it to 



