appointment and
vexation, and if the men had been all in health and spirits, I had not
officers to lead them on or direct them in any enterprise, nor even to
superintend the duties that were to be performed on board the ship.
These disadvantages, which prevented my obtaining refreshments at this
island, prevented me also from examining the rest that were near it. Our
little strength was every minute becoming less; I was not in a condition
to pursue the voyage to the southward, and was in danger of losing the
monsoon, so that no time was now to be lost; I therefore gave orders to
steer northward, hoping to refresh at the country which Dampier has
called _Nora Britannia_. I shall, however, give the best account I can
of the appearance and situation of the islands that I left behind me.

I gave the general name of _Queen Charlotte's Islands_ to the whole
cluster, as well to those I did not see distinctly, as to those that I
did; and I gave several of them particular names as I approached them.

To the southermost of the two, which when we first discovered land were
right a-head, I gave the name of _Lord Howe's Island_, and the other was
Egmont Island, of which some account has already been given. The
latitude of Lord Howe's Island is 11 deg. 10' S. longitude 164 deg. 43' E. The
latitude of Cape Byron, the north-east point of Egmont Island, is 10 deg.
40' S. longitude 164 deg. 49' E. The east sides of these two islands, which
lie exactly in a line with each other, about N. by W. and S. by E.
including the passage between them, extend about eleven leagues, and the
passage is about four miles broad; both of them appear to be fertile,
and have a pleasant appearance, being covered with tall trees, of a
beautiful verdure. Lord Howe's Island, though more flat and even than
the other, is notwithstanding high land. About thirteen leagues W.N.W.
1/2 N. by compass, from Cape Byron, there is an island of a stupendous
height, and a conical figure. The top of it is shaped like a funnel,
from which we saw smoke issue, though no flame; it is, however,
certainly a volcano, and therefore I called it _Volcano Island_. To a
long flat island that, when Howe's and Egmont's islands were right
a-head, bore N.W. I gave the name of _Keppel's Island_. It lies in
latitude 10 deg. 15' S. longitude, by account, 165 deg. 4' E. The largest of two
others to the S.E. I called _Lord Edgcumb's Island_. The small one I
called _Ourry's Island_. Edgcumb's Islan