386 COSMOS. 



of a volcano. More certain evidences of former genuine 

 volcanic action on the island of Amsterdam may be found in 

 the calculation made by D'Entrecasteaux a century later on the occa- 

 sion of the expedition in search of La Pgrouse ( Voyage, t. i, p. 43 45). 

 namely, for Amsterdam, according to Beautemps Beaupre, 37 47' 46" 

 (long. 77 71'), for St. Paul 38 38'. This near coincidence must be con- 

 sidered accidental, as the points of observation were certainly not ex- 

 actly the same. On the other hand Captain Blackwood in his Ad- 

 miralty chart of 1842 gives 38" 44' and longitude 77 37' for St. Paul. 

 On the charts given in the original editions of the voyages of the im- 

 mortal circumnavigator Cook, those for instance of the first and second 

 expedition ( Voyage to the South Pole and Round the World, London, 

 1777, p. 1), as well as of the third and last voyage (Voyage to the 

 Pacific Ocean, published by the Admiralty, London, 1784, in 2nd edi- 

 tion, 1785), and even of all the three expeditions (A General Chart, 

 exhibiting the Discoveries of Captain Cook in his Third and Two Pre- 

 ceding Voyages, by Lieut. Henry Roberts), the island of St. Paul is 

 very correctly laid down as the most southernly of the two ; but in 

 the text of the voyage of D'Entrecasteaux (t. i, p. 44), it is mentioned 

 by way of censure (whether with justice or not I am unable to say, 

 although I have sought after the editions in the libraries of Paris, 

 Berlin, and Gb'ttingen), "that on the special chart of Cook's last expe- 

 dition the island of Amsterdam is set down as more to the south than 

 St. Paul." A similar reversal of the appellations, quite opposed to 

 the intention of the discoverer, Willem de Vlamiug, was frequent in 

 the first third of the present century, as for example on the older and 

 excellent maps of the world by Arrowsmith and Purdy (1833), but 

 there was more than a special chart of Cook's third voyage operating 

 to cause it. There was, 1st, the arbitrary entry on the maps of Cox 

 and Mortimer ; 2nd, the circumstance that, in the atlas of Lord Mac- 

 artney's voyage to China, though the beautiful volcanic island repre- 

 sented smoking is very correctly named St. Paul, under Lit. 38 42', 

 yet it is absurdly added, " commonly called Amsterdam," and what 

 is still worse, in the narrative of the voyage itself, Staunton and. 

 Dr. Gillau uniformly called this " island still in a state of inflamma- 

 tion " Amsterdam, and, they even add (p. 226, after having given the 

 correct latitude in p. 219) " that St. Paul is lying to the northward of 

 Amsterdam ;" and 3rdly, there is the same confusion of names by 

 Barrow (Voyage to Cochin China in the Years 1792 and 1793, pp. 140 

 157), who also gives the name of Amsterdam to the southern island, 

 emitting smoke and flames, assigning to it at the same time the lati- 

 tude 38 42'. Malte Brun (Precis de la Geographic Universelle, t. v, 

 1817, p. 146), very properly blames Barrow, but he errs in also 

 blaming, M. de Rossel and Beautemps-Beaupre\ Both of the latter 

 writers give as the latitude of the island of Amsterdam, which is the 

 only one they represent, 37 47', and that of the island of St. Paul, 

 because it lies 50' more to the south, 38 38' ( Voy. de D' Entrecastreaux, 

 1808, t. 1, pp. 40 46), and to show that the design represents the 

 true island of Amsterdam, discovered by Willem de Vlaming, Beau- 



