204 DAHLGREN, THE DISCOVERY OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



Bashee Channel between Luzon and Formosa, they had to pass through the region where 

 the Anson chart shows such a prof usion of islands. They had no intention to search for 

 any of these islands. Where San Juan should be situated no appearance of land was seen; 

 and when, on 15 November 1779, they passed quite near an island in 24° 28' N. lat. and 

 141° 12' E. long., and, to the north and to the south thereof, sighted two other islands 

 in the distance, they entertained no suspicion of the identity between these islands and 

 earlier discoveries. The first-mentioned island, on which they thought they saw signs of 

 volcanic activity, received the name of Sulphur Island: 1 it was the Fortuna of the Spanish 

 charts (Farallon on the Anson chart); the "North Island" was San Alessandro; and the 

 "South Island" was San Agustin. In the whole group we recognize without difficulty the 

 Volcano Archipelago, which the Spanish navigatörs had so often seen before, and to whose 

 separäte islands they had given different names. 2 



La Pérouse paid greater attention to the search for the scattered islands than Cook 

 and his men had done. We have already mentioned his passing över the supposed position 

 of the Los Monges group and the speculations suggested thereby, and also his fruitless 

 search for S a Maria la Gorta. His vo} 7 age after that carried him north-west of Hawaii, 

 and he there discovered a httle island Necker and a dangerous reef Basse des Frégates 

 Francaises, on which, on the night before 6 November 1786, he only just escaped striking; 

 both these belong to the chain of rocks which form the continuation of the Hawaiian 

 group towards the north-west. From here he steered due west in about 20° N. lat. His 

 intention was to pass through the groups La Mira — Desierta and Los Jardines: as may 

 be seen from his chart (Pl. V), he sailed right över them; but, as he says, "their idle 

 names occupy places on the charts where there was never any appearance of land, and 

 thus deceive navigatörs, who perhaps may hereafter find them several degrees to the 

 north or the south". This gives the editor of La Pérouse' s journal occasion to repeat his 

 warning against effacing from geographical charts the ancient discoveries for which 

 modern navigatörs may have searched in vain. 3 The period that has elapsed since then, 

 however, has not confirmed this warning: the twice-repeated group of La Mira — Desierta 

 assuredly has no existence — I have shown above (p. 194) its probable origin; and it is 

 only Los Jardines that is still regarded as doubtful, 4 probably only because they are 

 situated in a region which is extremely seldom visited. 



1 Ibid., p. 407. 



2 See above, pp. 108, 109, 111, 114, 116, 119. 



3 Voyage de La Pérouse, II, pp. 294, 306. 



4 "They are described as being two small islands which were discovered in 1788 by Captain Marshall 

 and have been reported at rare intervals since by whalers." W. A. Bryan (Occasional Papers of the Bernice 

 Pauahi Bishop Museum, II, 1, p. 77). — "Los Jardines or Marshall Islands", 21° 40' N. lat,, 151° 30' E. long. 

 (Brit. Adm. Chart). — "Einige der Marianen sind im Laufe der Jahrhunderte verschwunden . . . Unbestimmt 

 ist das Schicksal der im Nordosten zu suchenden Los Jardines . . . Haben sie in unseren Breiten uberhaupt 

 nie existiert, und sind es nur falsch bestimmte Inseln anderer Gruppen? Öder waren sie wirklich da uud sind 

 wieder versunken? Öder sind sie vielleicht noch vorhanden und nur noch nicht wieder gefunden worden? Aus- 

 geschlossen erscheint letzteres ja nicht bei dem geringen Seeverkehr und den immer mehr feststehenden 

 Wegerichtungen fur die Schiffahrt in allén Seebreiten, und so wäre es wohl möglich, dass sie eines Tages 

 wieder aufgefunden wurden. Der Kapitän eines japanischen Schoners in Yokohama behauptet iibrigens, die 

 Jardines schon gesichtet zu haben." Herman H. L. W. Costenoble, Die Marianen (Globus, LXXXVIII, 

 1905, p. 5). 



