L>7-t GEOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX. 



NOTE 



Thk Latitudes ok Gallego in the Solomon Gkoup. — On making fourteen comiiaiisons-. 

 of the latitudes obtained by Gallego with the latitudes of the same places in the most recent 

 Admiralty charts, places about which there can be no doubt as to their identity, I find that 

 all but two are in excess of the true latitude. The excess varies between 11' and T 7' 

 (about) ; and since seven of the twelve latitudes vary between 38' and 4G' in excess, we may 

 take 40' plus as about the probable and average prevailing error of Gallego's observations of 

 latitude in this group. A constant error points to some constant defect of observation ; 

 whether it may be instrumental or otherwise, I must leave to the judgment of my nautical 



readers It may be inferred from his journal that Gallego did not endeavour to 



make his latitudes by observation accord with his bearings, as they are so often at variance. 

 This circumstance should be borne in mind in order to explain the discrepancies that occur. 



NOTE VI. (Page 20G.) 



The Isle of Kamos and the Island of Malaita. — On referring to the account of 

 Figueroa in the original Spanish, I find that, like Gallego, he applies the name of Ramos to- 

 Malaita. Pingre, who published a translation of Figueroa 's account in 1707 at Paris, i asso- 

 ciates the two names together. Dalrymide- in his translation, published in 1770, laid the 

 ground for future misconception, by so pointing the sentence tliat the name of Ramos might 

 be taken as intended for one of the "two islets" in the middle of the passage between 

 Malaita and Isabel. Fleurieu," in his translation of Figueroa published in Paris in 17C0, 

 ajjplies the name of Ramos to Malaita. Burney,-* in his version (1803), apparently api^lies 

 this name to one of the islets above referred to. The authority of Dalrymple and Burney 

 would appear to supply an explanation of the circumstance that in the present Admiralty 

 charts this name of Ramos is api^liedto an islet between Malaita and Isabel ; but Dalrymple's 

 version is susceptible of two meanings, and may be urged with equal justice on either side. 

 Gallego and Figueroa both apply the two names to the same island; so that circumstance 

 alone is sufficient to justify the restoration to Malaita of the Spanish name of "The Isle of 

 Ramos." The original cause of the mistake is to be attributed to the first discoverers, who 

 gave tlieir own name and were not content with the native name. Herrcra'^ has fallen into 

 the opposite error, since, in distinguishing between Malaita and Ramos, he gives the atter a 

 circuit of 200 leagues. 



NOTE VII. (Pages 207-209.) 



The Islands between Cape Prieto and Guadalcan.\r. — These islands which occu* 

 pied the attention of Fleurieu and Burney, and excited the curiosity of Dentrecastcaux, and 

 which D'Urvillc had intended to have completely ex^jlored, have long baSled the efforts of 

 geographical writers, who have endeavoured to identify them with the islands mentioned by 

 Figueroa in his brief account of Menduna's discoveries in this region. His description is 

 evidently derived from that of Gallego, of which it is but an imperfect and erroneous ex- 

 tract : and I will therefore disregard it. The island of Galera is ajjparently a small island, 

 not named in the present chart, which lies close to the north-west coast of Buena Vista. 

 The neighbouring large island, a league distant, to which Gallego only applies the native 

 name of Pela,*" is, as I apprehend, the Buena Vista of the present chart : the Buena Vista 

 of the Spaniards is apparently an island, not named in the chart, which lies west of the pre- 

 sent Sandfly Passage. The remaining four of the five islands may be in the future identified 

 with the incompletely surveyed intersected mass of land to which the general name of Florida 

 ■is applied in the present chart. The island of Sesarga is without doubt the volcanic island of 

 Savo : but I must refer the reader elsewhere for further information on this subject of Sesarga.^ 



1 " Meinoire sur le choix et I'ctat dcs \in\x 6u Id passage de Venus du, 3 Juin, 1700." (Paris, 1707.) 

 - "Hist. ('oil. of Voy. and Discov.," London, 1770. 

 •* " Discoveries of the French in 1708 and 1709." 

 ■• " Clironol. Hist. Voy and Discov.," vol. i. 

 ■'' " Descripcion de las Inilias Oecidentales." 



'i At the present day the whole of the Florida sub-group is known to the natives as Gela. (Codring- 

 ton's "Melanesian Languages," p. 522.) 



7 Tlie evidence is given in my volume of Geological Observations. 



