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"Impossible! and why, my noble friend?" asked Paganel, smiling. "Because the bottle could only have been thrown into the sea just when the vessel went to pieces on the rocks, and consequently the latitude and longitude given refer to the actual place of the shipwreck."
"If not, friend Dodge," returned the master, observing that the other paused to note the effect of his peroration, and using a familiarity in his address that the acquaintance of the former passage had taught him was not misapplied; "if not, friend Dodge, you have made a capital mistake in getting on board of her, as it is by no means probable an occasion will offer to get out of her, until we fall in with a news-boat, or a pilot-boat, at least somewhere in the latitude and longitude of Sandy Hook.
Soon after we had sun-shine, but the air was cold; the mercury in the thermometer stood generally at thirty-five, but at noon it was 37°; the latitude by observation was 60° 4' S., longitude 29° 23' W. We continued to stand to the east till half-past two o'clock, p.m., when we fell in, all at once, with a vast number of large ice-islands, and a sea strewed with loose ice.
But on the 31st of July I imprudently exposed myself to the night-dew in observing an eclipse of the moon, with a view to determine the longitude of the place; the next day I found myself attacked with a smart fever and delirium, and such an illness followed as confined me to the house during the greatest part of August.
We subsequently learned from the Copper Indians that the part at which we had crossed the river was the Congecathawhachaga of Hearne, of which I had little idea at the time, not only from the difference of latitude, but also from its being so much farther east of the mouth of the Copper-Mine River than his track is laid down, he only making one degree and three-quarters' difference of longitude and we upwards of four.
In the morning, we found the variation to be 1° 10' W. by the amplitude, and by the azimuth 1° 27'. At noon, our latitude was, by observation, 9° 45' S., our longitude 234° 12' W.; we were then about seven leagues distant from the land, which extended from N. 31 E. to W.S.W. 1/2 W.
He was much astonished at this singular difference between the two kinds of compasses, which he was disposed to attribute to their having been made by different kinds of loadstones; for until they had arrived at that longitude they all varied a point from the true north, and some of them continued to do so even there, while those constructed at Genoa, now pointed due north, and the same remarkable discrepancy continued upon the twenty-fourth of May.
Astl 1.114. In the first edition of Hakluyt's collection, this voyage is given under the name of Robert Gainsh, who was master of the John Evangelist, as we learn by a marginal note at the beginning of the voyage in both editions. Astl. Astl. Astl. In this version we have added the true latitudes and longitudes in the text between brackets; the longitude from Greenwich always understood.
He read out the latitude and longitude words and figures which neither of the children understood. "'Extreme length, three-quarters of a mile; width at narrowest point, 165 yards. It contains 356 acres, all of short grass, and affords pasturage in summer for a few sheep from the mainland. There is no harbour; but the south side affords fair anchorage for vessels sheltering from N.W. winds.
I could only assist them by a teaspoonful or two of wine which I had carefully saved, expecting such a melancholy necessity. Monday 8. Wind at south-east. The weather was more moderate than it had been for some days past. A few gannets were seen. At noon I observed in 8 degrees 45 minutes south; course west-north-west one quarter west, 106 miles; longitude made 8 degrees 23 minutes west.
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