POSITION OF CUBA. 161 



director of the Deposito hidrof/rajico of Madrid, at 5 38 

 11", in a table of positions which he communicated to me 

 on leaving Madrid. M. de Churruca fixed the Morro at 

 5 h 39' 1". I met at the Havaunah with one of the most 

 able officers of the Spanish navy, Captain Don Dionisio 

 Galeano, who had taken a survey of the coast of the strait of 

 Magellan. We made observations together, on a series of 

 eclipses of the satellites of Jupiter, of which the mean result 

 gave 5 h 38' 50". M. Oltmanns deduced m 1805. the whole 

 of those observations which I marked for the Morro, at 

 5 h 38' 52 5" 84 43' 7'5" west of the meridian of Paris. 

 This longitude was confirmed by fifteen occultations of stars 

 observed from 1809 to 1811, and calculated by M. Ferrer : 

 that excellent observer fixes the definitive result at 5 38' 

 50'9". With respect to the magnetic dip, I found it by the 

 compass of Borda (Dec. 1800), 53 22' of the old sexa- 

 gesimal division : twenty-two years before, according to the 

 very accurate observations made by Captain Sabine, in his 

 memorable voyage to the coasts of Africa, America, and 

 Spitzbergen, the dip was only 51 55'; it had therefore 

 diminished 1 27'. 



The island of Cuba being surrounded with shoals and 

 breakers, along more than two-thirds of its length, and 

 as ships keep out byond those dangers, the real shape of 

 the island was for a long time unknown. Its breadth, 

 especially between the Havaunah and the port of Bata- 

 bano, has been exaggerated ; and it is only since the 

 Deposito hidrogrqfico of Madrid published the observations of 

 captain Don Jose del Eio, and lieutenant Don Ventura de 

 Barcaiztegui, that the area of the island of Cuba could be 

 calculated with any accuracy. Wishing to furnish in this 

 work the most accurate result that can be obtained in the 

 present state of our astronomical knowledge, I engaged 

 M. Bauza to calculate the area. He found, in June, 1835, 

 the surface of the island of Cuba, without the Isla dos Pinos, 

 to be 3520 square sea leagues, and with that island 3615. 

 From this calculation, which has been twice repeated, it 

 results, that the island of Cuba is one-seventh less than has 



the Almirante, a plantation of the Countess Buenavista ; San Antonio de 

 BeiLia ; the Tillage of Managua ; San Antonio de Bareto ; and the Fonda. 

 dero, near the town of San Antonio de lot Bauos. 



TOL. Ill, M 



