INDIAN OCEAN. 213 



tude is possibly correct; the longitude is given differently by 

 different navigators. 



Extracts from the Log-book of Captain George Rule, of Nantucket. 



Made an island he discovered in 1823, and named it 



Lydra island, lat. 11 48' S., long. 164 47' W. No inhabitants; 

 plenty of. wood and fish, but no water that he could find ; not laid 

 down in any chart they had ; one and a half miles southsoutheast 

 to northnorthwest in extent; a reef around it one hundred rods 

 from shore ; no bottom one hundred yards from the reef. 



, 1824. Made Friends' rock, bearing half compass west 



half south, distance four leagues from above, at one A. M. At 

 noon it bore south, distant twelve miles, lat. 31 23' S. Next 

 day, discovered a reef, upon which the sea breaks high, at first 

 thought to be whales breathing. It bears from the Friends' rock 

 northwest, distance about four leagues. Latitude of reef, 31 ISi'; 

 the day previous, the longitude, by chronometer, 177 50' W. 



Bonin islands have had a place on the charts for some time ; 

 but little indeed, nothing was known of them, except that land 

 had been reported in that neighbourhood, and some mapmaker 

 put it down on his charts. They are regarded as new discoveries 

 in Nantucket, made by Captain Coffin, 12th September, 1824, 

 while he commanded the ship Transit, from Bristol. There is a 

 freshness in the account he gives of them that is really interesting; 

 and he may, with some justice, claim the honour of the discovery, 

 as they were not laid down on his charts. He found the group to 

 consist of six islands, besides a number of large rocks and reefs. 

 Captain Coffin sailed in the employ of Fisher, Kidd, and Fisher; 

 and, in honour of his employers, called two of the islands by their 

 names, the largest of which is four leagues in length. The one 

 most southern of the group he called South island ; and the fourth, 

 from the great number of pigeons he found on it, he named Pigeon 



