86° 18', west to Vedaci; seven leagues and a quarter to the south of Mensabe, about ninety miles from Panama, having traversed a distance of five hundred miles in eighty-eight days, on an E.b.N. course at the rate of 5-6 miles per diem.
On the 3rd of April we made the island of Cocos, and on the following morning observed two whale ships at anchor. The currents now drove us westerly, and as I saw little chance of getting the ship in until the afternoon, I started with my gig and tent, and secured my observations for time. In the afternoon the tide ran to the eastward, and the ship ran in under a light breeze, anchoring within the whale ships in nine fathoms, the rocks very clearly to be distinguished, with sand patches between. Our anchor was exactly on the line of foul bottom.
On landing, I was surprised to find a hut and several seamen, one Portuguese, one English, and five blacks, Americans, landed by their own demand from one of the American whalers. At first I suspected foul play, but on the masters of the vessels landing and stating the facts to me in presence of the men, they acknowledged " that they preferred living on the island to sailing in his vessel." Their contract was only " from the Sandwich Islands until they reached a port." They were evidently bad characters. Their only subsistence was fish, pigs, boobies, noddies, and other marine birds frequenting the island.
Water is very abundant, and was easily conveyed by hoses into the boats. A survey of the bay and
