284 VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



which our people had taken poffcflion, were not 

 infedled by poifon, for we pricked with them 

 feveral fowls, which thence experienced no bad 

 confequences ; but it is not uncommon in 

 fcorching climates, to fee the flighted fcratch 

 followed by a general fpafm, which is ainioft 

 always a fy mptom of death. 



On the i2th, about ten o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, we made the coafc of La Louiftadc* ; and, 

 at firfl, we took the eailernmoft land for Cape 

 Deliverance; but we foon difcovered that this 

 cape was upwards of twenty-five miles to the 

 northward. 



We were afloniflied at the rapidity of the 

 currents, which had drifted us forLy-four miles 

 to the northward in the fpace of four and 

 twenty hours. The obfervations made on 

 board the Efperance alfo gave the fame rcfult. 



Thence 



* This land was difcovered by BougainvilL-j in lyGS. It 

 appears to have been unknown b;.'forc this jx:riou. 1 here wa&. 

 only an imperfcA and confufed account of a difcovery, in i^c^, 

 of its northern coaft by the Dutch yacht the Gcchjinck. Ste 

 Voyage autour du monde, par M, dc Bongainvtilfy page 24^ 

 and following; and for the journal of the Geelvinck, the 

 Ifijio'tre g^nerale des Nanj'igations aux Terres Aujirijhi de iVf, 

 le Frejident de Brojfes, Vol. II. page 444. It is now proved 

 that the pofition firft given to Geclvinck's Land, is not the 

 true one. See pige 15 of the preface of the Decs'veries da 

 Fran^a'n en 1768 ^ 1/^9} '^"^'^ Ic Jud-ejl de la Nouvclle GUI'* 

 ste, rrirtfd at Fari^, in 1750. T. 



