32 6 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
east of the meridian of St. Augustine’s bay. This bank has been seen by two 
vessels, and may be a continuation of the preceding one, since it cannot be more 
than twenty leagues distant from it, to the north-east. 
“ The Panther man of war, commanded by Captain Affleck, in his passage from 
the island of Anjouan to India, made an observation on the 17th of May 1760 at 
noon, when he was in 9' of south latitude, and according to reckoning, 5 0 49' to the 
east of the meridian of Anjouan, and at 2 P. M. saw the bank d’Ambre, which was 
to the east of him, 5 0 or 6° south, at the distance of about seven or eight miles; when 
he sounded without finding a bottom, with a thirty-five fathom line. At four P. M. 
he surveyed the extremities of the shoal, and found no bottom with an hundred 
fathom line. The variation was 12 0 20' A. M. and 12 0 21' P. M. 
“In the year 1730 the ship Le Lys, commanded by M. le Chevalier Pontevez, 
in its passage from the Isle of Bourbon to India, took the common course in order 
to make Madagascar: but not having seen that island, on the 25th of June, at six 
P. M. he made good his course to the north-north-east, 3 0 30' east, forty-five leagues’* 
and one-third, till the 26th at noon; and afterwards to the north-north-east, 2 0 30' 
north, till two P. M. of the same day, when he perceived land north-west by west, 
from four to five leagues. He observed that it consisted of two islands, which were 
separated by a small channel; and according to the latitude which he had observed, 
always allowing for the error of his fleche, the middle of this isle would be in 
io° 17' latitude. As to its longitude, although I had determined it on my chart 
to be 49 0 , after having traced the courses of several ships which sailed from Mada¬ 
gascar, and had not seen this island in this longitude, and even more to the eastward, 
I thought it right to place it in 50° 35'. 
“ The Lys, on losing sight of this island, made good her course north-north-east, 
when she perceived another island, that was named the Alphonse , which, according to 
the track of this ship, since she saw Jean de Nove> should be sixty-nine leagues to the 
north-north-east of it, and consequently in 7 0 of latitude, and 52 0 2c/ of longitude. 
Eighteen leagues and an half to the north of the island Alphonse , or rather to 
north by north-west, according to a more correct reduction of the courses of this 
ship, the Chevalier Pontevez saw another small island, to which he gave the name 
of Saint Frangois. 
“ This island was seen on the 21st of September, 1744, by a small vessel on its 
passage to Make. She ranged along the western coast of it, at the distance of a 
