162 VOYAGE TO ZIA. 
CHAP, improbable story : but we perfiaps learn from it 
the reason why exiles were sent hither by the 
Ramans; the labour of mining having been 
antiently, as it is now in many countries, a 
punishment allotted to state criminals : how- 
ever, we perceived no traces either of the mine- 
ral thus alluded to, or of the works carried on 
for its excavation. 
voyage to We left Jura for ZIA, October the twenty-fifth, 
the weather being calm. As we drew near to 
Zi'A, there sprung a fresh breeze, and our sailors 
endeavoured to steer the caique into what they 
believed to be the harbour of the island, at its 
northern extremity. Fortunately, we had a 
small compass, and a copy of Tourneforis 
travels, the accuracy of whose maps we had 
before proved ; and, finding that neither our 
Captain nor any one of the Casiot crew knew any 
thing of the coast, the author undertook to 
pilot the vessel into a harbour which he had 
never seen, and actually by the aid of charts 
which have neither soundings nor bearings'. 
As soon as we had doubled the northern point of 
the island, the wind freshened apace ; but it 
came entirely aft, with a heavy sea, which drove 
(1) See Tournef. Voy. du Lev. torn. II. pp. 14, 31. Lyon, 1717- 
