A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the; Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea; and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the; Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea; and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
When we took our departure from Masafuero, we had a great sea from the
N.W. with a swell of long billows from the southward, and the wind,
which was from the S.W. to the W.N.W., obliged me to stand to the
northward, in hope of getting the south-east trade-wind, for the ship
was so dull a sailer, that there was no making her go without a strong
wind in her favour. Having thus run farther to the northward than at
first I intended, and finding myself not far from the parallel of
latitude which has been assigned to two islands called Saint Ambrose,
and Saint Felix or Saint Paul, I thought I should perform an acceptable
service by examining if they were fit for shipping to refresh at,
especially as the Spaniards having fortified Juan Fernandes, they might
be found convenient for Great Britain, if she should hereafter be
engaged in a Spanish war. These islands are laid down in Green's charts,
which were published in the year 1753, from latitude 26° 20' to 27° S.,
and from 1°1/4 to 2°1/2 W. of Masafuero; I therefore hauled up with a
design to keep in that latitude, but soon afterwards, consulting
Robertson's Elements of Navigation, I found the island of Saint Ambrose
there laid down in latitude 25° 50' S., and 82° 20' longitude west of
London, and supposing that islands of so small an extent might be laid
down with more exactness in this work than in the chart, I bore away
more northward for that latitude; the event, however, proved that I
should not have trusted him so far: I missed the islands, and as I saw
great numbers of birds and fish, which are certain indications of land
not far off, there is the greatest reason to conclude that I went to the
northward of them. I am sorry to say that upon a farther examination of
Robertson's tables of latitudes and longitudes, I found them erroneous
in many particulars: This censure, however, if I had not thought it
necessary to prevent future mischief, should have been suppressed.
Upon examining the account that is given by Wafer, who was surgeon on
board Captain Davis's ship, I think it is probable that these two
islands are the land that Davis fell in with in his way to the southward
from the Gallapago islands, and that the land laid down in all the sea
charts under the name of Davis's Land, has no existence, notwithstanding
what is said in the account of Roggewein's voyage, which was made in
1722, of land that they called Eastern Island, which some have imagined
to be a confirmation of Davis's discovery, and the same land to which
his name has been given.
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