172 DAHLGREN, THE DISCOVERY OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



d'un Pilote Anglois, fort scavant, rapportée par Dudley"; biit for tlie benefit of anyone 

 who might possibly wish to find here a trace of an otherwise forgotten discovery of the 

 Hawaiian Islands, we may add the information that by this "learned English Pilot" is 

 undoubtedly meant Thomas Fuller, one of Cavendish's companions, wliose account of 

 Cavendish's voyage, publislied b} T Hakluyt, 1 was misunderstood by Delisle: as a matter 

 of fact, Cavendish sailed a far more southerly course than that indicated by Delisle. Still 

 more incorrectly did Delisle conceive Mendaha's voyage of 1568. Misled by his supposition 

 as to the position of the Solomon Islands (too far towards the east), he laid Mendaha's 

 course between Los Monges and California, and placed the /. 8. Francois (Mendaha's 

 San Francisco) east of Roca Partida, that is to say between that island and the other islands 

 belonging to the Revilla Gigedo group. On his contemporary map of North America" 

 Delisle also placed, south of Saint Francois, between 16° and 17° N. lat., a "Terre habitée 

 découvertc par Mendafia"; a product of imagination which would seem to have contributed 

 to the notion of Mendaha's discovery of Hawaii, which has been disproved above. 3 



But Delisle did not remain on the level that he had gained with so much honour 

 by his youthful work of 1700. A critical penetration that increased with years led him 

 to continued improvements. Such an improvement, and one of great importance for our 

 subject, we see in a map of 1714 (Fig. 17). 4 In this map, on the basis of the observations 

 made by the French Captain Nicolas de Frondat during his voyage across the Pacific 

 Ocean in 1709, Delisle ga ve to the coast of California a position more in agreement with 

 the reality: whereas, in 1700, he had placed its most north-westerly point, Cape Mendocino, 

 in 236° E. from Ferro, in 1714 he moved it eastwards to 251 °. But in this removal of not less 

 than 15 degrees of longitude the Los Monges group was not allowed to take part. As regards 

 that group, Delisle had found no information in his new sources, and therefore he let it 

 remain in its old position in 235°. In this position we find, on the map of 1714, our islands 

 with the partly distorted names of Los Monges, la Vagina and Guatiada. 5 By this means 

 these islands were released from their dependence on the Californian coast, which had 

 previously defined their position, and obtained a place far out in the Ocean. As a removal 

 due to similar causes took place on the Spanish charts, we have here the explanation of the 

 misunderstanding that led låter geographers to the Hawaiian hypothesis. 



Another change that Delisle made in his map of 1714 is that he placed the /. S. 

 Francois and the Inhabited Island south thereof to the west, instead of to the east, of the 

 Los Monges group. The reason of this is that he had attained to a more correct conception 

 of the course of Mendafia, as is still more clearly seen on two låter maps by Delisle on which 

 Mendafia' s course is laid out. 6 For some unknown reason he caused the two islands to 

 change places, so that Terre vue par Mendana the note that the country was inhabited 



1 Hakluyt, Voyages. New ed. 1904. Vol. XI, pp. 34y. 363. 369. 



- L'Amérique Septentrionale par G. de 1'lsle. Paris 1700. 



:; Cf. above, p. 42. 



1 Hémisphh-c Septentrional pour voir plus distinctement les Terres Arctiques, Juillet 1714. 



' It is curious to see how little exactitude Delisle observed in the giving of names: e. g., instead of 

 La Anublada, lie wrote La Mudleda (see Fig. 171. which was of course uncritically repeated by a number of 

 cartographers. 



c Mappemonde å Vusage du Roy, Paris 15 e Avril 1720; Hémisphére Occidental dressé en 1720 pour 

 Vusage particulier du Roy, Paris le 15 Septembre 1724 (Fig. 21). 



