STORY OF A LOST ARCHIPELAGO. 259 



with some of the islands called Solomon's Islands." After reacliino- 

 the meridian of 177° 30' E. long, in 10° 18' S. lat., a position five 

 deoTees to the westward of that assigned to the Solomon Islands in 

 his chart, Captain Carteret came to the conclusion " that if there 

 were any such islands their situation was erroneously laid down." He 

 was afterwards destined to discover, unknown to himself, nearly a 

 thousand miles to the westward, the very group whose existence he 

 doubted. Continuing his westerly course, he arrived at a group of 

 islands, the largest of which he recognised as the Santa Cruz of 

 ^lendana, which had not been visited by Europeans since the 

 disastrous attempt to found a Spanish Colony there more than 170 

 years before. With a crazy ship, and a sickly crew, Captain Carteret 

 desisted from the further prosecution of l)is discoveries in those 

 regions; and shaping his course W.N.W., he sighted in the evening 

 of the second day a low flat island, one of the outlying islands of 

 the Solomon Group, which, without suspecting the nature of his 

 discovery, he called Gower Island, a name still preserved in the 

 present chart.^ During the night, the current carried him to the 

 south, and brought him within sis^ht of what he thouoht were two 



^ CD n O 



other large islands lying east and west with each other, which he 

 named Simpson's Island, and Carteret's Island. Captain Carteret 

 communicated Avitli the natives, but did not anchor. These two 

 islands have proved to be the forked northern extremity of the 

 large island of Malaita. Keeping to the north-west, he subsequently 

 discovered, off the north-west end of the group, a large atoll with 

 nine small islands, which are known as the Nine Islands of Carteret. 

 On the following mornino; he was fated, without beins; aware of it, 

 to get another glimpse of the Solomon Islands. A high island, 

 descried bv him to the southward, which is named Winchelsea 

 Island in his test, and Anson Island in his chart of the voyage, 

 was in all probability the island of Bouka visited nearly a year 

 afterwards by Bougainville, the French navigator. Thus the missing 

 group was at length found, but without the knowledge of the 

 English navigator who discovered it. He had, in truth, expected 

 to find it 20° further to the east. It was reserved, however, for 

 the geographer in his study to identify the discoveries of Carteret 

 with the Isles of Salomon of Mendana. 



At the end of June, 1768, Bougainville the French navigator,^ 



1 Captain Carteret communicated with the natives, but did not anchor. 



2 "Voyage autour du Monde en 1766-1769 : " second edit, augmentee : Paris 1772. 



