1801.
October.
Sunday 4.The fresh western winds continued, with short intervals of calm, as far as the latitude 33° 23′, and longitude 13° 0′ west; when they died away, and a breeze sprung up from the eastward. With this wind we could do little more than look up for the isles of Tristan d'Acunha, whose bearing was then S. 16° E., and distance seventy-seven leagues. From the description given by sir Erasmus Gower[1] of the anchorage, and the convenience with which water may be obtained, and his account of the animals which resort there, I should not have considered it to be lost time, had the wind made it advisable to put in at Tristan d'Acunha, for a few days; but it veered round to the north-west, on the 6th,Tuesday 6. and we resumed our former course to the Cape of Good Hope.
In the morning of the 14th,Wednes. 14. the variation by mean of amplitude and azimuth, was 25° 10′ west; the ship's head being E. by S., and our latitude 35° 4′ south, and longitude 12° 50′ east. It is worthy of being mentioned, that in the year 1797, and near the same place, I observed the variation to be 19° 40′ west, on board His Majesty's ship Reliance; and as the compass was upon the binnacle in both cases, the sole cause to which I can attribute this great difference is, that the ship's head was west, instead of E. by S. The true variation could not be far from the mean of the two observations, since it was 26° at the Cape of Good Hope. In the English Channel, the com-
- ↑ Lord Macartney's Embassy to China, by sir G. Staunton, Vol. I. p, 198—201.
"September 22, 1809, at five p. m., saw the island of Saxonburg, bearing E. S. E., first about 4½ leagues distant: clear weather. Steered for the said island, and found it to be in the latitude of 30° 18′ south, longitude 28° 20′ west, or thereabout.
"The island of Saxonburg is about four leagues in length, N. W. and S. E., and about 2½ miles in breadth. The N. W. end is a high bluff of about 70 feet, perpendicular form, and runs along to the south-east about 8 miles. You will see trees at about a mile and a half distance, and a sandy beach."
The situation of Saxemberg in the common tables and charts, was 30° 45′ south and 19° 40′ west, almost 9° of longitude too little; and therefore it is not surprising that ships have missed it. At the time so many birds were seen, on the 28th, the Investigator was not more than eighty miles from the position of the island, as above given from Mr. Long.
