154 FROM CONCEPTION BAY 



tilde, according to the chronometers, 144° 59' 20" 

 west. I could not doubt but this was also a new 

 discovery. I named it after my former commander 

 Admiral Spiridof. As the island did not appear 

 to me to be inhabited, and as a landing could not 

 be effected but with the same difficulties as at Ro- 

 manzoff*s Island, I determined to lose no time, but 

 to steer to the W.S.W., with the intention of look- 

 ing at Cook's Palliser's islands, to compare my 

 longitude with his. A fresh east wind carried us 

 quickly towards our object; and, directly after sun- 

 set, I lay-to to keep the ship in a spot where I found 

 the sea extremely calm and even ; a proof that a 

 number of islands must be in our neighbourhood. 

 But we found the current in this place so extremely 

 strong, that on the following day at noon, the ship 

 had been driven twenty-eight miles to N.W. 82°. 



On the 23d of April, at dawn, we sailed further, 

 and ought, according to my calculation, to be, at ten 

 o'clock, near the meridian of Palliser's islands, but 

 rather more to the north ; in the hope, therefore, 

 of soon finding the islands, we steered to the S. S. W. 

 In fact, at about half past ten o'clock, land was 

 announced at the right and left. I now steered 

 from the south to the east, a course which must lead 

 me direct into the passage. The land on our 

 right, which consisted of a number of small coral 

 islands, covered with wood, and joined by coral 

 reefs, I declared to be a new discovery. This 



situation was more to the north than the Paliisers, 



18 



