Thursday, May the 14th. Fresh breezes and cloudy weather, wind southerly. Constantly shipping water, and very wet, suffering much cold and shiverings in the night. Served the usual allowance of bread and water, three times a day.
At six in the morning, we saw land, from S W by S eight leagues, to N W by W 3/4 W six leagues, which I soon after found to be four islands, all of them high and remarkable. At noon discovered a rocky island N W by N four leagues, and another island W eight leagues, so that the whole were six in number; the four I had first seen bearing from S 1/2 E to S W by S; our distance three leagues from the nearest island. My latitude observed was 13° 29´ S, and longitude, by account, from Tofoa, 15° 49´ W; course since yesterday noon N 63° W; distance 89 miles.
Friday 15.
Friday, May the 15th. Fresh gales at S E, and gloomy weather with rain, and a very high sea; two people constantly employed baling.
1789. May 15.
At four in the afternoon I passed the westernmost island. At one in the morning I discovered another, bearing W N W, five leagues distance, and at eight o'clock I saw it for the last time, bearing N E seven leagues. A number of gannets, boobies, and men of war birds were seen.
These islands lie between the latitude of 13° 16´ S and 14° 10´ S: their longitude, according to my reckoning, 15° 51´ to 17° 6´ W from the island Tofoa[*]. The largest island may be twenty leagues in circuit, the others five or six. The easternmost is the smallest island, and most remarkable, having a high sugar-loaf hill.
[*] By making a proportional allowance for the error afterwards found in the dead reckoning, I estimate the longitude of these islands to be from 167° 17´ E to 168° 34´ E from Greenwich.
The sight of these islands served but to increase the misery of our situation. We were very little better than starving, with plenty in view; yet to attempt procuring any relief was attended with so much danger, that prolonging of life, even in the midst of misery, was thought preferable, while there remained hopes of being able to surmount our hardships. For my own part, I consider the general run of cloudy and wet weather to be a blessing of Providence. Hot weather would have caused us to have died with thirst; and perhaps being so constantly covered with rain or sea protected us from that dreadful calamity.
As I had nothing to assist my memory, I could not determine whether these islands were a part of the New Hebrides or not: I believed them perfectly a new discovery, which I have since found to be the case; but, though they were not seen either by Monsieur Bougainville or Captain Cook, they are so nearly in the neighbourhood of the New Hebrides, that they must be considered as part of the same group. They are fertile, and inhabited, as I saw smoke in several places.