1i2 SPIRIDOW ISLAND. 
the clearness of the heavens to ascertain, by the 
distance between the sun and moon, its exact: 
longitude, which is 144° 28’. According to 
the observations we had made in the ship Ru- 
rik, it was 144° 24’, consequently there was a 
difference of only four minutes. 
We now steered due West, in order to learn 
whether the island which, on my voyage in the 
Rurik, I had named after Admiral Spiridow, 
was really a new discovery, or, as has been 
said, only the most southerly of the King 
George’s Islands. A fresh wind favoured our 
course, and at six o’clock in the afternoon we 
could see this island, my discovery of which 
has been denied, lying before us at a distance 
of six miles westward. 
At the same time, we could distinguish from 
the mast-head the southern part of another 
island, lying due North, with open water be- 
tween the two. We were in 14° 41’ 36” South 
latitude, and 144° 55’ longitude. During the 
night we were becalmed, but in the morning a 
fresh breeze sprang up directly in our teeth, 
and the current carried us so far to the South, 
that, even from the mast, we could no longer 
