Q5°2 cook's SECOND VOYAGE JUNE, 



nando de Noronho, on the coast of Brazil, in order 

 to determine its longitude, as I could not find this 

 had yet been done. Perhaps I should have performed 

 a more acceptable service to navigation, if I had 

 gone in search of the island of St. Paul, and those 

 shoals which are said to lie near the equator, and 

 about the meridian of 20° west ; as neither their 

 situation nor existence are well known. The truth 

 is, I was unwilling to prolong the passage in search- 

 ing for what I was not sure to find ; nor was I willing 

 to give up every object, which might tend to the 

 improvement of navigation or geography, for the 

 sake of getting home a week or a fortnight sooner. 

 It is but seldom that opportunities of this kind offer ; 

 and when they do, they are too often neglected. 



In our passage to Fernando de Noronho, we had 

 steady fresh gales between the S. E. and E. S. E. at- 

 tended with fair and clear weather ; and as we had 

 the advantage of the moon, a day or night did not 

 pass without making lunar observations for the de- 

 termining our longitude. In this run, the variation 

 of the compass gradually decreased from 11° west, 

 which it was at Ascension, to 1° west, which we 

 found off Fernando de Noronho. This was the mean 

 result of two compasses, one of which gave 1° 37', 

 and the other 23' west. 



On the 9th of June, at noon, we made the island 

 of Fernando de Noronho, bearing S. W. by W. -§• W., 

 distant six or seven leagues, as we afterwards found 

 by the log. It appeared in detached and peaked hills, 

 the largest of which looked like a church tower or 

 steeple. As we drew near the S. E. part of the isle, 

 we perceived several unconnected sunken rocks lying 

 near a league from the shore, on which the sea broke 

 in a great surf. After standing very near these rocks, 

 we hoisted our colours, and then bore up round the 

 north end of the isle, or rather round a group of little 

 islets ; for we could see that the land was divided by 

 narrow channels. There is a strong fort on the one 



