

1779. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. $53 



from seeing any more of the Kiirile islands. At 

 noon 'of the 16th, the latitude, by observation, was 

 45° 27' ; the longitude, deduced from a number of 

 lunar observations taken during the three days past, 

 155° 30'. The variation 4° 30' E. In this situation, 

 we were almost surrounded by the supposed dis- 

 coveries of former navigators, and uncertain to 

 which we should turn ourselves. To the southward 

 and the south-west were placed, in the French charts, 

 a group of five islands, called the Three Sisters, 

 Zellany and Kunashir. We were about ten leagues, 

 according to the same maps, to the westward of the 

 land of De Gama, which we had passed to the east- 

 ward in April last, at a distance rather less than this, 

 without seeing any appearance of it ; from which cir- 

 cumstance we may now conclude, that, if such land 

 exist at all, it must be an island of a very inconsiderable 

 size.* On the other hand, if we give credit to the 

 original position of this land, fixed by Texiera-f-, it 

 lay to the west by south ; and as the Company's 

 Land t, Staten Island §, and the famous land of Jeso ||, 



* From Muller's account, of the course steered by Captain 

 Spanberg, in his route from Kamtschatka to Japan, it appears 

 that he must also undoubtedly have seen De Gama's Land, if it 

 really has the extent given it in Mr. D'Anville's maps. Walton, 

 who commanded a vessel in the same expedition, seems also to 

 have looked in vain for this land on his return from Japan ; and 

 three years afterward, on account of some doubts that had arisen 

 respecting Spanberg's course, Beering went directly in search of 

 it as low as the latitude of 46 D . — See Voyages et Dtcouvertes, &c. 

 p. 210, et seq. 



-f- See Book vi. chap. i. p. 14-9. 



J This land was seen by the Dutchmen who sailed in the 

 Castricom and Breskes, and imagined by them to be part of the 

 continent of America. There now remains scarce any doubt of 

 its being the islands of Ooroop and Nadeegsda. See the Journals 

 of the Castricom and Breskes, published by Wetzer. 



§ This land was also discovered by the Castricom; and, from 

 its situation, as described in the journal of that vessel, it appears to 

 be the islands of the Three Sisters. 



|| The country of Jeso, which has so long been a stumbling- 

 block to our modern geographers, was first brought to the know* 

 VOL. VII. A A 



