108 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF 



On the 5th, they made the Pescadores, which was surveyed. Its 

 position is in latitude 11° 23' 15" N., longitude 167° 36' 30" E. The 

 Pescadores is of triangular shape and coral formation ; it has on its 

 reef several islets and some sand-spits : the former are covered with a 

 few low bushes, but it has no cocoa-nuts or pandanus-trees, and affords 

 nothing but the pearl-oyster and turtles, in the season. The whole 

 island is about thirty-two miles in circumference. Its greatest length, 

 north and south, is ten miles, and the same between its east and west 

 point. There are two entrances in the lagoon: one about the middle 

 of the north side, the other on the east side. The island has no in- 

 habitants, and is incapable of supporting any. From the description 

 in Mr. Dowsett's journal, there is no doubt that this was the place 

 where he and the boat's crew were either treacherously murdered, or 

 made captives, and carried to another island ; and from the nature of 

 the island, little doubt exists that the murderers were a transient fishing 

 party, from some of the adjacent islands. All the facts that are known 

 have been given previously. 



Korsakoff was in sight for two days ; but they were prevented from 

 having communication with it by the boisterous state of the weather. 

 On the afternoon of the 7th, an endeavour was made by a canoe to 

 reach the ship, but without success : the sea was too rough for the 

 boats to live, and the surf too great to permit a landing. Although a 

 few persons were seen upon it, yet nothing showed that it was per- 

 manently inhabited. The appearance of Korsakoff was the same as 

 that of the Pescadores, without any vegetable productions capable of 

 sustaining life. 



Korsakoff, though represented as one island on the charts, was found 

 to be two. The smaller one lies to the southward of the larger, and is 

 fourteen miles long by three wide. The larger island is about twenty- 

 six miles long, trending northeast and southwest. It has an entrance 

 into its lagoon on the south side. 



Captain Hudson now came to the conclusion that his time would 

 not permit him to proceed any further to the westward ; indeed, the 

 time appointed in his instructions to be at the Columbia river had 

 already passed, and he was now distant from it upwards of four 

 thousand miles, and would require some sixty or seventy days, in all 

 probability, to reach the Northwest Coast. 



This caused the abandonment of his visit to Strong's and Ascension 

 Islands, two points I was in hopes would have been reached, not only 

 for the information to be derived from a visit, but I was desirous of 

 having a full knowledge of those islands. I also wished to break up 

 what was deemed a nest of rogues, and to be the means of recovering 



