A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17: 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 17: 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
But, though the violent and contrary winds we had met with during the last
six days, prevented our getting in with these islands, yet the course we
had been obliged to hold, is not without its geographical advantages. For
the group of islands, consisting of the Three Sisters, Kunashir, and
Zellany, (which, in D'Anville's maps, are placed in the track we had just
crossed,) being, by this means, demonstratively removed from that
situation, an additional proof is obtained of their lying to the westward,
where Spanberg actually places them, between the longitude 142 deg. and 147 deg..
But as the space is occupied, in the French charts, by part of the supposed
land of Jeso and Staten Island, Mr Muller's opinion becomes extremely
probable, that they are all the same lands; and, as no reasons appear for
doubting Spanberg's accuracy, we have ventured, in our general map, to
reinstate the Three Sisters, Zellany, and Kunashir, in their proper
situation, and have entirely omitted the rest. When the reader recollects
the manner in which the Russians have multiplied the islands of the
Northern Archipelago, from the want of accuracy in determining their real
situation, and the desire men naturally feel of propagating new
discoveries, he will not be surprised, that the same causes should produce
the same effects. It is thus that the Jesoian lands, which appear, both
from the accounts of the Japanese, and the earliest Russian traditions, to
be no other than the Southern Kurile islands, have been supposed distinct
from the latter. The land of De Gama is next on record; and was originally
placed nearly in the same situation with those just mentioned, but was
removed, as has been already suggested, to make room for Staten Island, and
the Company's Land; and as Jeso, and the southernmost of the Kuriles, had
also possession of this space, that nothing might be lost, they were
provided for, the former a little to the westward, and the latter to the
eastward.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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