Though seventeen months had now elapsed since our departure from England, during which we had not, upon the whole, been unprofitably employed, I was sensible that, with regard to the principal object of my instructions, our voyage was at this time only beginning; and, therefore, my attention to every circumstance that might contribute toward our safety and our ultimate success, was now to be called forth anew. With this view I had examined into the state of our provisions at the last islands; and as soon as I had left them and got beyond the extent of my former discoveries, I ordered a survey to be taken of all the boatswain’s and carpenter’s stores that were in the ships, that I might be fully informed of the quantity, state, and condition of every article; and, by that means, know how to use them to the greatest advantage. Before I sailed from the Society Islands, I lost no opportunity of inquiring of the inhabitants, if there were any islands in a N. or a N. W. direction from them; but I did not find that they knew of any. Nor did we meet with any thing that indicated the vicinity of land, till we came to about the latitude of 8° S., where we began to see birds, such as boobies, tropic, and men-of-war birds, tern, and some other sorts. At this time, our longitude was 205° E. Mendana, in his first voyage in 1568[22], discovered an island which he named Isla de Jesus, in latitude 6° 45ʹ S., and 1450 leagues from Callao, which is 200° E. longitude from Greenwich. We crossed this latitude nearly a hundred leagues to the eastward of this longitude, and saw there many of the above-mentioned birds; which are seldom known to go very far from land. In the night, between the 22d and 23d, we crossed the line in the longitude of 203° 15ʹ E. Here the variation of the compass was 6° 30ʹ E. nearly.