The Marquesas are five in number, viz. La Magdalena, St. Pedro, La Dominica, Santa Christina, and Hood’s island, which is the northernmost, situated in latitude 9° 26ʹ S., and N. 13° W., five leagues and a half distant, from the east point of La Dominica, which is the largest of all the isles, extending east and west six leagues. It hath an unequal breadth, and is about fifteen or sixteen leagues in circuit. It is full of rugged hills rising in ridges directly from the sea; these ridges are disjoined by deep valleys, which are clothed with wood, as are the sides of some of the hills; the aspect is, however, barren; but it is, nevertheless, inhabited, latitude 9° 44ʹ 30ʺ S. St. Pedro, which is about three leagues in circuit, and of a good height, lies south, four leagues and an half from the east end of La Dominica: we know not if it be inhabited. Nature has not been very bountiful to it. St. Christina lies under the same parallel, three or four leagues more to the west. This island stretches north and south, is nine miles long in that direction, and about seven leagues in circuit. A narrow ridge of hills of considerable height extends the whole length of the island. There are other ridges, which, rising from the sea, and, with an equal ascent, join the main ridge. These are disjoined by deep narrow valleys, which are fertile, adorned with fruit and other trees, and watered by fine streams of excellent water. La Magdalena, we only saw at a distance. Its situation must be nearly in the latitude of 10° 25ʹ, longitude 138° 50ʹ. So that these isles occupy one degree in latitude, and near half a degree in longitude, viz. from 138° 47ʹ to 139° 13ʹ W. which is the longitude of the west end of La Dominica. The port of Madre de Dios, which I named Resolution Bay, is situated near the middle of the west side of St. Christina, and under the highest land in the island, in latitude 9° 55ʹ 30ʺ, longitude 139° 8ʹ 40ʺ W.; and N. 15ʹ W. from the west end of La Dominica. The south point of the bay is a steep rock of considerable height, terminating at the top in a peaked hill, above which you will see a path-way leading up a narrow ridge to the summits of the hills. The north point is not so high, and rises with a more gentle slope. They are a mile from each other, in the direction of north by east, and south by west. In the bay, which is near three-quarters of a mile deep, and has from thirty-four to twelve fathoms’ water, with a clean sandy bottom, are two sandy coves, divided from each other by a rocky point. In each is a rivulet of excellent water. The northern cove is the most commodious for wooding and watering. Here is the little waterfall mentioned by Quiros, Mendana’s pilot; but the town or village is in the other cove. There are several other coves or bays on this side of the island, and some of them, especially to the northward, may be mistaken for this; therefore, the best direction is the bearing of the west end of La Dominica.