HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
333 
west of a small island, which they saw in the morning, in 6° of latitude, and which 
I should suppose was the north side of the Isle of Roquepiz, if the Portuguese Ma¬ 
ritime Directory had not stated, that, to the south-west of it, and at the distance 
of six leagues, there were three small flat islets, with a few trees on them, and laying 
from east to west, which these ships had not seen. As they observed the variation 
in the environs, the uncertainty of their longitude engaged me to have recourse to 
it: and following the course of the lines of variation which I have already mentioned^ 
the island which they imagined to be Gratia , and I had named the Isle St. George , 
(as Gratia , or Garcia , is more to the east,) should be in 58° 35', and Roquepiz in 
57° 3 5' longitude. 
<c There remains in this sea, the Isle of Sept Freres, on which I have seen no 
other memorial than that which is found in the Portuguese Maritime Directory, 
where it is mentioned as being in 4° of south latitude. 
“ With respect to the islands that are to the eastward of this, they appear to me 
too well known, from having been so often seen by our own ships and those of the 
English, to require a particular description in this place. 
“ The island Diego Garcia, was seen on the 24th of September, 1769, by M. 
le Chevalier Grenier, who commanded the King’s corvettes L’Heure du Berger 
and Le Verd Galant. M. l’Abbe Rochon determined its longitude to be in 68° 20'. 
M. la Fontaine, who commanded the Verd Galant, returned in the month of No¬ 
vember, 1770, to examine and take a plan of the very spacious bay, which this 
island, whose form resembles that of a serpent bent double, contains, as it were, 
within itself. A great number of vessels might anchor there in safety; but the prin¬ 
cipal object is wanting: for though it is covered with wood, it is not provided with 
fresh water. Its length is four leagues from north to south, and its greatest breadth 
is two leagues. 
“ This same island was perceived by an English ship, who, from sight of it, steer¬ 
ing to the north, made two other islands and three islets, with a reef, distant about 
five leagues to the east-north-east. He passed between the reef and the islands, 
whose latitude he determined to be between 5 0 12' and 5 0 23'. To the north-north¬ 
east of these islands, between 5 0 and 4 0 35', he found an unequal bottom of twenty- 
six, seven, twenty-three, twenty-eight, nine, and twenty-three fathom. 
“ The island Diego Garcia was also made in January, 1745, by an English 
vessel called the Pelham, in its passage from the Cape of Good Hope to Bombay, 
