RADACK CHAIN OF ISLANDS.
On the 8th of April, at noon, we found ourselves, according to our observation, in the latitude 11° 24' South, and in the longitude 174° 24'. We had left the north-west point of the island of Pola one hundred and forty miles behind us: the weather was fine, the horizon very clear, but we looked in vain from the mast-head for land.
Hence we gave up any further search in this quarter, and directed our course to the north, for the shortest way to cut the Equator, and then, by the help of the north-east trade-wind, to reach Radack, where we intended to stop and make observations on the pendulum, the results of which, in the neighbourhood of the Equator, would be important to us. I appointed Otdia, belonging to this chain of islands, for our residence, as affording the most convenient anchorage for large ships.
We were so much delayed by calms, that we could not till the 19th of April reach the ninth degree of south latitude. Here we encountered gusts of wind and torrents of rain, and a current carried us daily from twenty to thirty miles westward. When we were under three degrees south latitude, and one hundred and eighty degrees longitude, the current suddenly changed, and we were driven just as strongly to the East,—a circumstance too remarkable to be passed over in silence. At a distance from land in the vicinity of the Equator, the currents are always westerly. Here it was precisely contrary; from what cause I am unable to explain.
From the fifth degree of south latitude to the Equator, we daily perceived signs of the neighbourhood of land. When we were exactly in 4° 15' latitude, and 178° longitude, heavy gales brought swarms of butterflies and small land-birds to the ship; we must therefore have been near land, but we looked for it in vain; and this discovery remains for some future navigator.
On the 22nd we cut the Equator in the longitude 179° 43', and once more found ourselves in our own Northern hemisphere—nearer to our native country, though the course by which we must reach it would be still longer than that we had traversed. Our old acquaintance the Great Bear showed himself once more, and we looked upon him with joy, as though he had brought intelligence from our distant homes.
We now again employed Parrot's machine to draw up water from a depth of 800 fathoms. Its temperature was only six degrees of Reaumur, while that of the water at the surface was twenty-three degrees.
A tolerably strong wind, which blew during several successive days, brought us within sight of the Radack Islands, on the morning of the 28th of April.
To those who are yet unacquainted with these islands, and cannot or will not have recourse to my former voyage, I must be excused giving a few particulars concerning them.