st, which is more than a degree to
the eastward of the south part seen by the Supply; the weather
was now dark and gloomy, with heavy rain at times, and light,
variable winds. Queen Charlotte's Islands certainly lie farther
to the eastward than has generally been supposed, otherwise we
must have made them, for we crossed their latitude in 163 deg.
30' east longitude, which is nearly what the west end of Egmont
Island is said to lie in.

On the 8th of May we had a number of very good observations of
the sun and moon's distance, by which our longitude was at noon
163 deg. 32' east, and the latitude at the same time 9 deg. 33'
south. On the 10th, in the morning, we saw land bearing
west-north-west, distant about seven leagues; we bore down to
make it plain, and it proved to be a cluster of small islands,
five in number; they were well covered with trees, amongst which
we thought we observed the cocoa-nut.

These islands, when we first discovered them, appeared as only
one, which induced me to think it might be Carteret's Island; and
had it not been that by going nearer we discovered that there
were five of them, and that they did not at all answer the
description of that given by Captain Carteret, I should have
concluded that it was so, although the longitude of his island
must have been very erroneous, had it been the case. Their
latitude is 8 deg. 26' south, which is nearly the latitude of
Carteret's; and their longitude, deduced from the preceding day's
observations, is 163 deg. 18' east. We steered from them directly
to the northward, in order to see if we could discover Gower's
Island, which Captain Carteret says lies about ten or eleven
leagues to the northward of Carteret's; but as we saw nothing, I
concluded they had never been seen before; I therefore called
them Stewart's Islands, as a mark of my respect for the
honourable Keith Stewart.

The two largest of the islands just mentioned I judged to be
about three miles in length; whether they were inhabited or not
we could not discover: we passed to windward of them, and not
being situated conveniently for making discoveries, or exploring
unknown lands, we made the best of our way to the northward: just
after we left these islands, we passed through a very strong
ripling of a tide or current, and saw the trunks of several large
trees in the water. On the 12th, at nine o'clock in the morning,
the man at the mast-head discovered breakers on the starboard
bow, a