MISCELLANIES. 



>91 



in the eastern ocean ; not but that 

 navigators and geographers have 

 been long advertised of the exist- 

 ence of these islands, and have 

 had some confused ideas on 

 tliis subject, even from the time 

 of the first navigations in these 

 latitudes. If, as there is reason 

 to believe, the volcano islands 

 discovered by the ship San Juan 

 in 154'i, are the same as the Sul- 

 phur island of Cook's third voyage, 

 the uninhabited island found by 

 that vessel thirty leagues further 

 north east, called Forfana in 

 Galvaom's account, should have 

 made part of our groupe. The 

 Spanish chart Admiral Anson 

 took on board the Acapulco 

 Galleon in 1 74-3 placed here the 

 islands of St. Alexander, Fa- 

 rallon, Todos los Santos, and an 

 unnamed groupe which Mr. 

 Brice has quite recently restored 

 to his charts with a note dictated 

 by a wise reserve, that they are 

 islands whose existence is doubt- 

 ful. That communicated to Mr. 

 Peyrouse at Monterey added to 

 the island St. Alexander, those 

 of Fortuna, Volcano, St. Au- 

 gustin, and a groupe entirely 

 corresponding with ours, under 

 the name of Islas del Arzobispo. 

 These Archbishop's islands, sup- 

 posed by Tuckey* to form the 

 northern point of the Mariannes, 

 and by Zimmermanf to agree 

 with the Grampus of Meares, 

 have experienced various fortune 

 in modern charts. Some French 

 geographers have retained them 

 with their name; Mr. Arrow- 



• Maritime Geography, Vol. 4, 

 Page 15. 



f Auslralien in Ilinsicht der Erd 

 Menschcn und produkt kunde, &c. 



smith has suppressed them in his 

 map of Asia, but figured them in 

 his generpil map, under the form 

 of a small pointed groupe without 

 a name, and in his large map of 

 the world in sheets has added to 

 them from the voyage of the 

 Nautilus in 1801. Disappoint- 

 ment and Moore's islands, which 

 correspond with the S. W. and 

 N. E. extremities of the Bonin 

 islands, and since G, Delisle 

 nearly all geographers have re- 

 tained the islands St. Roch, St. 

 Thomas, and St. Matthew, which 

 may have made part of the Bonin 

 islands and should have been seen 

 by Fondrac in 1709, in his voj^age 

 from Macao to California in the 

 French ship Le St. Antoine de 

 Fade.* 



These different accounts do 

 not appear sufficiently exact to 

 admit the existence of a groupe 

 of islands in this place as being 

 demonstrated. But I believe a 

 different opinion will be formed 

 when they are found to be com- 

 pletely confirmed by the Japa- 

 nese. To show that the descrip- 

 tion given by them is not at all 

 opposed to what our most modern 

 navigators communicate, I will 

 briefly state the courses of the 

 most celebrated in the Japanese 

 seas. The Castricom, after sail- 

 ing round the island of Fatsisio, 

 did not descend southward below 

 Blue island ; the Resolution, 

 returning from Kamtschatka in 

 1779, ascertained the position of 

 Sulphur island and of another 

 very elevated island about eight 

 leagues north of it, which perhaps 

 agrees with one of the most 



* Miguel Venegas Noticia de ia 

 California, Page 4, App. 5. 



southern 



