A«ti. t0 wa^ about the decks with fome fatisfaCfion. Nothing
lefs was wanting to keep up our fainting fpirits, and to
ftrengthen the fick, who might be faid to feed entirely
upon hope, having no refrefhments to reftore their wafted
ftrength. We had already confumed all the vegetables which
had been purchafed at Eafter Ifland ; nothing therefore remained,
but either to return to the loathed diet of falted
meat, of which the juices were utterly deftroyed, by lying
in pickle for three years, or to ftarve on a fmall quantity
of bread, if the ftomach could not digeft thofe grofs and
unprofitable fibres.. We were therefore unanimous in 'our
wifhes of a fpeedy deliverance; and in proportion as the
breeze flaclcened or encreafcd, the thermometer of our expectations
fluctuated from abjeCt defpondence to the moil;
fanguihe expectation. All our books which treated of
Mendana’s Voyages were confulted; and fince the vague
expreflions, relative to the diftance of the Marquefas from
Peru, gave us full fcope for conjecture, every day produced
a new calculation of their longitude. For the fpace of five
days we fucceffively palled over the different pofitions which
our new geographers had allotted to thofe iflands, and overturned
each new hypothefis, not without fome diverfion to
the reft, who either artfully concealed their own opinion, or
candidly confeffed that the data were too uncertain to bear
a fuperftrufture. During this courfe we enjoyed fome
beautiful evenings, and particularly obferved the fky and
clouds
clouds tinged with different hues of green by the fetting A’P7” L
fun, on the 3d of April. This colour has been obferved
by Frezier before, and is in fact nothing extraordinary, eft
pecially if the air happens to be charged with vapours,
which is frequently the cafe between the tropics. The
fame day we had caught a fmall fucking fifh, adhering to
a flying fifh, with which we had baited a hook: a proof
that thefe little creatures are not always fixed to fharks.
The fame day we faw a large fifh of the genus of rays,
which is called a fea-devil by fome authors. It perfectly
refembled that which we had feen in the Atlantic, on the
firft of September, 1772. (See vol. I. p. 47.) The number
of terns, tropic, and man of war birds, encreafed around
us almofl: every day, as we ran to the weftward, and
approached the iflands which we expeCted to find. At
laft, on the 6 th of April in the afternoon, we had fight
of a fmall bluff ifland ; but the haze which involved it,
and which thickened as we advanced, prevented our examining
the nature of the land, and building any hopes of
refrefhment on its appearance. Quiros, who is fuppofed
tp have written the account of the voyage of the Spanifh
Adelentado (or captain-general) Don Alvaro Mendana do
Neyra, in the year 1595, gives a favourable account of
the group of iflands difcovered in that voyage, which were
named the Idas Marquefas de Mendoza, in honour of the
viceroy of Peru, Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoja, marquis
of