KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4. 



201 



we pass to the tables appended thereto, 1 and to the chart of Meares' voyage, we f ind in the 

 former the longitude of Lot's Wife fixed as 157° 4', while on the latter it lies in 156° E. 

 The explanation of this alteration is given in a note to the narrative, 2 which says that the 

 latitudes and longitudes are there given "as they were kept by the reckoning, but in the 

 chart as they were inferred by correct observations and the lunar method of finding the 

 longitude at sea". By a mistake made in this process of correction, and in itself difficult 

 to explain, Lot's Wife has thus been placed about 16° east of its true position; and in 

 consequence of this we find on Meares' chart (Fig. 24) this rock in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood (1° 20') of Roca de Ora, which, of course, is nothing but the renowned Rica 

 de Oro. Nothing was more natural, therefore, than to identify these two islands. The 



140 



Fatsuto I 



p? X Dumen> Jtniitt °"\j^ 



^•fulp^^-T' 



jiirtit i 'Rock ir*:d jtoi \ i 



Guvsk Vrac 



* ** the Gardens Lamjrn 



140 



150 



160 



20 



24. Part of a Chart of the Northern Pacific Oceaii explored in 1788 and 1789 by John Meares. 



first person to do this seems to ha ve been Aaron Arrowsmith, on whose world-map of 

 1790 we find "Lotfs Wife, probably Rica de Oro" in 30° N. lat. and 156° E. long. 3 The 

 same view was held by James Burney, 4 who, on the strength of Meares' description of the 

 inaccessible rock, takes occasion to remark how little it deserved the name of "Gold 

 Island". On the other hand, Burney has not observed that the identification has no 

 historical justification, and that it arose solely through a gross mistake. 



When at length the mistake in Meares' "corrected" longitudes was detected, and 

 his Lot's Wife was moved back westwards to its right place, the name Rica de Oro was 

 made to accompany it, and thus in its tum received a position which differs from that 



1 Ibid., Appendix, table II. 



2 Ibid., p. xcvj. 



3 This map has also a "Rica de Oro or Gold Island" in the same latitude, 1° 30' further to the west. 

 1 A Chronol. Hist., II, 1806, p. 266. 



K. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl. Band 57. N:o 4. 26 



