Feb.] 



COCOS ISLAND. 



191 



CHAPTER V. 



Cocos Island — Galapagos Islands — Eruption of a Volcano on Narborough Island 

 — Critical Situation of the Tartar — A fruitless Search for Gallego and other ima- 

 ginary Islands — Arrive on the Coast of California — Island of Guadaloupe — 

 Cerros Island — Bay of St. Francis — Near to our native Land, and yet far from 

 it — The Gulf of California and River Colorado — Anew Route from the United 

 States to the Pacific Ocean — Old California — Cenezos Island — Port San Diego 

 in New California, — Character of the Inhabitants, &c. 



Cocos Island is situated in the North Pacific Ocean, about one 

 hundred and seventeen leagues west-south-west of the Gulf of Panama, 

 at the Isthmus of Darien, and one hundred and forty leagues north-east 

 of the Galapagos Islands. It lies in latitude 5° 25' N., long. 87° 0' W. 

 This island is of an oblong shape, being twelve miles in length, from 

 north-east to south-west, and about four in breadth. Its western side 

 is very much elevated, presenting the appearance of a round hill, which 

 can be seen at the distance of more than thirty miles. Vancouver says 

 it has been seen from the south at the distance of forty-six miles. On 

 the eastern side the surface is broken, and slopes rather abruptly to- 

 wards the sea ; presenting, in some places, bold and perpendicular 

 cliffs. 



This island, and the islets which surround it, are well covered with 

 trees, mostly cocoanuts, yielding their fruit in luxuriant abundance. 

 The climate is temperate and salubrious, and from the great variety 

 of vegetables that grow in abundance close to the verge of high-water 

 mark, in the bays, it is evident that neither violent storms nor heavy 

 seas are frequent. There are two bays, or places fit for anchorage ; 

 the one near to the north-east end of the island, called Chatham Bay ; 

 the other, to which we gave the name of Byers's Bay, is three miles 

 farther to the westward. 



Chatham Bay is well sheltered by a small islet that lies off its north- 

 west point. The width of this bay, from point to point of the two 

 islets that form each of its extremities, is about one mile, bearing nearly 

 south-east and north-west. From this line to the head or bottom of 

 the bay the distance is about the same. The soundings in this bay 

 are from fifty to twelve fathoms ; and vessels may ride very snugly 

 within less than half a mile of the beach, in twenty fathoms of water. 

 In a less depth, however, the bottom will be found rocky. 



The western bay is somewhat more exposed, its soundings are not 

 so regular, nor the ground so good for anchorage, though the depth 

 of water varies from fifty to seven fathoms. The shore of this bay is 

 not steep, like that of Chatham, but consists of a beautiful valley and 

 sandy beach, where cocoanut-trees grow in great profusion, and where 

 there is a rivulet of pure water eighteen or twenty feet in breadth, 

 which is supplied from a natural basin about one mile from the shore. 



