JOURNAL OP GALLEGO. 211 



much esteem. They aVso brought us some tusks ^ that seemed 

 to belong to some large anin)al, of which they have many : and 

 they told us that we should take them and give them back 

 their canoe. I considered that we should restore canoe their 

 and accept these tusks : but the ' maestre de campo ' was not 

 willinof to do so. This island is in latitude 9i°. We named it 

 the island of Jorge.^ 



" We continued our return journey, sailing to the west-by-north 

 around the said island of Santa Isabel. When we were a third part 

 from the south-south-east portion of this island, we saw two large 

 islands. We did not go to them, because loe had not reached the 

 extremity of the island tvhich we should have to round,^ and also 

 because the coast is beset with many reefs and shoals which we 

 could scarcely pa.ss through in the brigantine, it being impossible to 

 sail through them in ships. These islands would be 6 leagues from 

 Santa Isabel ; they are in latitude 9^° S., as they lie east and west 

 with the island of Veru 10 leagues. These islands, which we 

 passed, bear east and west one with the other. The land runs 

 much further to the west-bj'^-north. The needle declined to the 

 N.W.^ I observed the sun near the river and found myself in 9° 

 full (9 grados Largos). In this island we saw many bats (inurcie- 

 lagos) of such a size that the wings from tip to tip measured 5 feet 

 in expanse. This island has a breadth of 20 leagues ; for I took 

 the sun on the north side, where the ships lay, and now on the south 

 side ; and in this last I found the latitude to be 9° full {largos), 

 whilst on the north side the latitude is 8° minus 8 minutes, lying 

 north-north-east and south-south-west 20 leagues. To the two large 

 islands, which we saw, we gave the following names, to the one 

 San J^Jicolas, and to the other, which lies more to the west, the Isle 

 of Arracises (Reefs), because there are so many reefs to pass through 

 that it is impracticable to sail round the island.^ 



" After running for four days, but not through the nights, we 



^ Probably boar's tusks. 



- The St. George's Island of the present chart. 



3 The genera' sense of this passage italicized is here given. 



•* For N.W. read N.E. There is evidently a mistake in the MS., as Gallego previously 

 found the needle to vary cue point to the north-east, when a few leagues from Estrella 

 Harbour (see p. 204). 



5 Those two islands were probably, from their bearing with the island of Veru or St. 

 George, the two mountainous islands in the south-east part of New Georgia, which, as 

 observed by Gal ego, runs much further to the westward. Their distance, however, from 

 Veru, is more than double that which Gallego gives. 



