1801.
September.
Tuesday 29.the westward, and blew fresh; so that on the 29th, our latitude was 31° 2′ and longitude 26° 0′ west. This was 17′ to the south, and about 6° west of the situation usually assigned to Saxemberg; an island which has been frequently sought by the East-India, and other ships, in the place which it still occupies in the charts; and not finding it there, they have run a few degrees to the eastward, in the same parallel, but always without success. The opportunity which presented itself of now adding 6° of longitude to the examined space, and on the opposite side, I should have thought myself culpable in neglecting; and therefore, having placed the ship in the supposed parallel of the island, we steered due east for it; adopting the same regulations for the look-out at night, as when searching for St. Paul's.
We had seen an unusual number of pintado and sooty petrels on the preceding afternoon, as also of a brown bird, apparently one of the sea-swallow tribe, having a white belly and the form and size of a woodcock; and this evening it was reported to me from the mast head, and confirmed by others on deck, that a turtle was seen lying upon the water. These indications of land gave me some hope that the long lost Saxemberg might be brought to light. Wednes. 30.On the following noon, the observed latitude was 30° 41′ and longitude 22° 46′; and nothing further had transpired to betoken the vicinity of land. Next day,October.
Thursday 1. our observations gave 30° 34′ south, and 20° 28′ west; and I then steered east-south-east, a course which should have taken us almost directly over the supposed situation of Saxemberg, if the same current of 11′ north had prevailed, as on the preceding day. But this not proving to be the case, our track lay a few miles to the south; though sufficiently near for us to be satisfied of the non-existence of the island in the place assigned to it, if that could any longer admit of a doubt.[1]
- ↑ At the Cape of Good Hope, in 1810, His Excellency the Earl of Caledon favoured me with the following extract from the log book of the sloop Columbus,—Long, master; returning to the Cape from the coast of Brazil.
