This island, which I named after Mr. Banks, lies about five leagues from the coast of Tovy Poenammoo; the south point bears S. 21 W. from the highest peak on the snowy mountain, and lies in latitude 43° 32’ S. and in longitude 186° 30’ W. by an observation of the sun and moon which was made this morning: it is of a circular figure, and about twenty-four leagues in compass: it is sufficiently high to be seen at the distance of twelve or fifteen leagues, and the land has a broken irregular surface, with the appearance rather of barrenness than fertility; yet it was inhabited, for we saw smoke in one place, and a few straggling natives in another.

When this island was first discovered in the direction of S. by W. some persons on board were of opinion that they also saw land bearing S.S.E. and S.E. by E. I was myself upon the deck at the time, and told them, that in my opinion it was no more than a cloud, and that as the sun rose it would dissipate and vanish. However, as I was determined to leave no subject for disputation which experiment could remove, I ordered the ship to be wore, and steered E.S.E. by compass, in the direction which the land was said to bear from us at that time. At noon we were in latitude 44° 7’ S.; the south point of Banks’s Island bearing north, distant five leagues. By seven o’clock at night we had run eight and twenty miles, when seeing no land, nor any signs of any, but that which we had left, we bore away S. by W. and continued upon that course till the next day at noon, when we were in latitude 45° 16’, the south point of Banks’s Island bearing N. 6° 30’ W. distant twenty-eight leagues. The variation by the azimuth this morning was 15° 30’ E. As no signs of land had yet appeared to the southward, and as I thought that we had stood far enough in that direction to weather all the land we had left, judging from the report of the natives in Queen Charlotte’s Sound, I hauled to the westward.

Voyaging Accounts