PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
521 
appellation, I named it after Francis Baily, Esq. late President of the CHAP. 
Astronomical Society. 
These clusters of islands correspond so well with a group named June, 
Yslas del Arzobispo in a work published many years ago in Manilla, 
entitled Navigacion Especulativa y Pratica, that I have retained the 
name, in addition to that of Bonin Islands ; as it is extremely doubtful, 
from the Japanese accounts of Bonin-sima, whether there are not other 
islands in the vicinity, to which the latter name is not more applicable. In 
these accounts, published by M. Klaproth in his Memoire sur la Chine, 
and by M. Abel Bemusat in the Journal des Savans for September, 1817, 
it is said, that the islands of Bonin-sima, or Mou-nin-sima, consist of 
eighty-nine islands ; of which two are large, four are of a middling size, 
four small, and the remainder of the group consists of rocks. The 
two large islands are there said to be inhabited, and in the Japanese 
chart, published in the Journal des Savans, contain several villages and 
temples. They are stated to be extremely fertile, to produce leguminous 
vegetables and all kinds of grain, besides a great abundance of pasturage 
and sugar-canes, and the plains to afford an agreeable retreat to man ; 
that there are lofty palm-trees, cocoa-nuts, and other fruits ; sandal 
wood, camphor, and other precious trees. 
Setting aside the geographical inaccuracy of the chart, which the 
Japanese might not know how to avoid, and the disagreement of 
distances and proportions, their description is so very unlike any thing 
that we found in these islands, that if the Japanese are at all to be 
credited they cannot be the same ; and if they are not to be believed, 
it may be doubted whether Bonin-sima is not an imaginary island. 
The group which we visited had neither villages, temples, nor any 
remains whatever ; and it was quite evident that they had never been 
resided upon. There were no cocoa-nut trees, no sugar-canes, no 
leguminous vegetables, nor any plains for the cultivation of grain, the 
land being very steep in every part, and overgrown with tall trees. 
Neither in number, size, or direction will the islands at all coincide ; 
and under such dissimilarities it may reasonably be inquired whether 
it is possible for these places to be the same. If we compare the 
number, size, and shape of the islands, or direction of the group, there 
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