KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDUNGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4- 9 



of the spöt assigned to them, and for that reason I relinquished any further search, and 

 made the best of our way towards Owhyhee"; and he adds the following remark: - 



On this occasion it is but just to observe, that the Spanish sea-officers have no faith in the exis- 

 tence of these islands; the only authority which they are acquainted with for their insertion in the 

 Spanish charts, is their having been so found in a chart of the Pacific Ocean, constructed many years 

 ago by an old pilot who had frequently passed between South America and the Philippines, and 

 whose skiU and observation had acquired him much reputation and credit in bis profession; but as 

 the spöt in which they were placed was totally out of his path, it was generally beheved by the 

 Spanish officers that he had laid them down from the authority of others. 



The first person to put forward the view that these islands on the old Spanish maps 

 were the same as those which Cook discovered is the famous French navigatör, La 

 Pérouse. 



In the Instructions 1 which were issued for this voyage, from which he was destined 

 never to reiurn, and whose final fäte was for so long wrapped in darkness, we find the 

 following: — 



Si, en faisant voile des iles Marquises de Mendoca, le vent le favorisait assez pour que sa route 

 valut au moins le nord, il pourrait reconnaitre quelques-unes des iles a 1'est du groupe des iles Sand- 

 wich: il se rendrait ensuite a ces derniéres, ou il pourra prendre un supplement de provisions. . . 



The geographical and historical notes, written by M. de Fleurieu, which were an- 

 nexed to the Instructions, did not mention by name any of the islands here in question, 

 except La Nublada and Rocca Partida (lying "east-south-east of the Sandwich Islands" ), 

 whose discovery is attributed to the Spaniard Juan Gaetano, in 1542. Concerning 

 the Sandwich Islands the author of the Instructions evidently shares Cook's opinion: 

 in words partly borrowed from him he says: 2 — 



Quoique les routes des galions d'Espagne ayent du mettre ces vaisseaux å portée de reconnaitre 

 des iles situées entré le 19" et le 20 e paralléle au nord, il ne parait pas que, dans aucun temps, 

 les Espagnols en ayent eu connaissance. Elles offraient une excellente reläche a leurs vaisseaux qui 

 commercent d'Asie en Amérique, par le grand Ocean équatorial; et il n'est pas a présumer qu'ils eussent 

 négligé de se procurer un établissement sur des iles situées si avantageusement pour la communication 

 des deux continens. 



In May 1786 La Pérouse had reached the regions where he had to carry out the 

 investigations dealt with in the parts of his Instructions cited above. He did not wish to 

 sacrifice any of his precious time in seeking for La Nublada and Rocca Partida, although 

 in sailing northward from Easter Island he believed that he had passed quite close to 

 them, according to their position as marked on the map that he followed. Much more 

 important it seemed to him to search for the islands east of Hawaii, although he already 

 considered that he had reasonable grounds for suspecting that they did not exist in the 

 place indicated on the map, and that in reality they were nothing else than the Sandwich 

 Islands discovered bv Cook. 



1 Mémoire du Roi, pour servir d'iustruction particuliére au sieur La Pérouse, capitaine de ses vais- 

 seaux, commandant les frégates la Boussole et 1'Astrolabe, 26 jui» 1785. Voyage de La Pérouse autour du 

 Monde, T. I, Paris 1797, pp. 13 — 61. 



a Ibid., T. I, p. 122. 



K. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl. Band 57. N:o i. 2 



