Aug.] 



ISLAND OF SAXENBURGH. 



277 



the rate of eight miles an hour, our tantalizing land took a sudden 

 start, and rose about ten degrees above the horizon. Convinced that 

 we could never come up to it in the ordinary course of navigation, v/e 

 now tacked and stood to the northward. We had likewise seen land 

 the day before, at 4, P. M., exactly in our wake, which appeared to be 

 about twenty miles distant. 



August 24th. — On Sunday we found ourselves in lat. 30° 41' south, 

 long. 15° 57' west, and feeling satisfied that any further search for Sax- 

 enburgh Island would be a useless waste of time, we shaped our 

 course for the south African coast, our first point of destination being 

 Saldanha Bay, a little south of the parallel on which we were now 

 running to the east. We crossed the meridian of Greenwich on the 

 28th, in latitude 30° 55' S. 



The island of Saxenburgh is said to have been first seen by J. Lin- 

 deman, a Dutch navigator, who sailed from Monikendam, in 1670. On 

 the 23d of August, of that year, he discovered an island, as he sup- 

 posed, bearing north-east-by-north, distant about six leagues. He de- 

 scribed it very particularly, and accompanied his description with a 

 view taken at sundown of the same day. He represents it as having 

 a remarkable narrow peak, like a column, rising near the centre of the 

 island, and he named his new discovery Saxenburgh, in honour of a 

 German town of that name in the circle of Westphalia, twenty miles 

 north-west of Hanover. 



Captain Galloway, in the American ship Fanny, bound to Canton, 

 in 1804, supposed that he saw this island at ten leagues' distance, and 

 states that it was in sight four hours from the mast-head, without 

 changing its appearance, which exhibited a peaked hill in the centre, 

 and a bluff at the west end, situated in the latitude of 30° 43', but two 

 degrees farther east than laid down in the chart. 



This illusory island was again supposed to have been seen by Cap- 

 tain J. O. Head, in the ship True Briton, on a voyage to Calcutta, the 

 9th of March, 1816. The log-book of this ship states, that "At 8, 

 A. M., fresh breezes from north-by-west, and dark cloudy weather, saw 

 what we supposed to be an island, bearing east-south-east, distant six 

 leagues, forming a high pinnacle at the southern end, and gradually de- 

 creasing in height to the north end. At 10, A. M., squally weather, 

 the land having still the same appearance as the clouds cleared off at 

 intervals. At noon our latitude by observation 30° 42' south, long. 21° 

 40' west, by mean of three chronometers ; the centre of the island 

 bearing east-by-north-half-north per compass, twenty-four miles. At 

 2, A. M., cloudy weather with rain, lost sight of the land, which we 

 concluded was the island of Saxenburgh, laid down by Captain Hors- 

 burgh as doubtful." 



Captain James Horsburgh, F.R.S. who has had twenty-one years' 

 experience as shipmaster in the India trade, says that he has, at two dif- 

 ferent times, endeavoured to gain sight of this doubtful island, by cross- 

 ing the longitude of 19° west, at one time a few miles to the southward 

 of its latitude ; and at another time a little more northerly than the lati- 

 tude assigned to it, without seeing any indications of land. 



Fr<om my own observations, and those of the many celebrated Eng- 



