it is probably very near the truth. Whilst we were abreast of this island,
we had a very heavy swell from the N.E., though the wind had, for some
time, been from the westward, a circumstance which we have already remarked
more than once during the course of our voyage. In the night we tried for
soundings, but found no ground with fifty fathoms of line.

On the 14th and 15th, the wind blowing steadily and fresh from the
westward, we were obliged to stand to the southward; and consequently
hindered from seeing any more of the Kurile Islands. At noon of the 16th,
the latitude, by observation, was 45° 27', the longitude, deduced from a
number of lunar observations taken during the three days past, 155° 3O'.
The variation 4° 30' E. In this situation, we were almost surrounded by the
supposed discoveries of former navigators, and uncertain to which we should
turn ourselves. To the southward and the S.W. were placed, in the French
charts, a group of five islands, called the Three Sisters, Zellany and
Kunashir. We were about ten leagues, according to the same maps, to the
westward of the land of De Gama, which we had passed to the eastward in
April last, at a distance rather less than this, without seeing any
appearance of it; from which circumstance we may now conclude, that, if
such land exist at all, it must be an island of a very inconsiderable
size.[93] On the other hand, if we give credit to the original position of
this land, fixed by Texiera, it lay to the W. by S.; and as the Company's
Land,[94] Staten Island,[95] and the famous land of Jeso,[96] were also
supposed to lie nearly in the same direction, together with the group first
mentioned, according to the Russian charts, we thought this course deserved
the preference, and accordingly hauled round to the westward, the wind
having shifted in the afternoon to the northward. During this day we saw
large flocks of gulls, several albatrosses, fulmars, and a number of fish,
which our sailors called grampuses; but, as far as we could judge, from the
appearance of those that passed close by the ships, we imagined them to be