Before I sailed from the Society Islands, I lost no opportunity of inquiring of the inhabitants, if there were any islands in a N. or a N. W. direction from them; but I did not find that they knew of any. Nor did we meet with any thing that indicated the vicinity of land, till we came to about the latitude of 8° S., where we began to see birds, such as boobies, tropic, and men-of-war birds, tern, and some other sorts. At this time, our longitude was 205° E. Mendana, in his first voyage in 1568[22], discovered an island which he named Isla de Jesus, in latitude 6° 45ʹ S., and 1450 leagues from Callao, which is 200° E. longitude from Greenwich. We crossed this latitude nearly a hundred leagues to the eastward of this longitude, and saw there many of the above-mentioned birds; which are seldom known to go very far from land.
In the night, between the 22d and 23d, we crossed the line in the longitude of 203° 15ʹ E. Here the variation of the compass was 6° 30ʹ E. nearly.
On the 24th, about half an hour after day-break, land was discovered bearing N. E. by E. 1/2 E. Upon a nearer approach, it was found to be one of those low islands so common in this ocean; that is, a narrow bank of land inclosing the sea within. A few cocoa-nut trees were seen in two or three places; but in general the land had a very barren appearance. At noon, it extended from N. E. by E. to S. by E. 1/2 E., about four miles distant. The wind was at E. S. E.; so that we were under a necessity of making a few boards to get up to the lee or west side, where we found from forty to twenty and fourteen fathoms water, over a bottom of fine sand; the least depth about half a mile from the breakers, and the greatest about one mile. The meeting with soundings determined me to anchor, with a view to try to get some turtle; for the island seemed to be a likely place to meet with them, and to be without inhabitants. Accordingly, we dropped anchor in thirty fathoms; and then a boat was dispatched to examine whether it was practicable to land, of which I had some doubt, as the sea broke in a dreadful surf all along the shore. When the boat returned, the officer whom I had intrusted with this examination, reported to me that he could see no place where a boat could land; but that there was great abundance of fish in the shoal water, without the breakers.