88 NEWLY DISCOVERED ISLANDS, &C. 



which I had a good opportunity of making, and which may 

 I presume be considered as tolerably correct, 1 should lay it 

 down in 10° 50' S. and 166° 10' E. 



march 3d, 1802. 



At 8 A. M. made several small low islands, distant about 

 6 or 7 miles: they are very dangerously situate, being level 

 with the water, and it' it were not for a few cocoa-nut trees 

 growing on them, it would be impossible to see them 3 leagues 

 oft", on the clearest day. They lie in a N W and S E direc- 

 tion, about 7 leagues long; and are entirely surrounded with 

 rocks. A reef extends from the N W part into the sea about 

 6 miles, over which the sea breaks very high: there are but 

 very few dry spots on the whole of them; they consist of 

 white sand and coral. I make the northern extreme to lie 

 in 9° 55' N. and the southern in 9° 38' N. Longitude of the 

 middle of the shoal, from observations of sun and moon, 

 161° 26' E. 



SEPTEMBER 7th, 1802. 



At midnight made a shoal not twice the ship's length off, 

 and steering right for it; immediately wore, and stood to the 

 N W till day light; then stood to the S E, in order to survey 

 the shoal. At 9 A. M. made the S \V part, distant about 3 

 miles, and run along the N E part of it at tliG distance of 

 one mile, or a mile and a half: it runs about N E and S W 

 16 or 18 miles in length, and about 11 in breadth; the N E 

 part is the broadest, and on this part was the only dry spot 

 I could see from the mast head. Some large drift-wood ly- 

 ing on it, had much the appearance of black rocks. 



It is a very dangerous shoal, and can not be seen until you 

 are very near it. From good observed distances of the sun 

 and moon, which I had the same afternoon, and good meri- 

 dian altitudes that day and the day after, when in sight of the 

 trhoal, I have been able to ascertain its situation with tolerable 

 correctness viz: 



