As we advanced to the north, we felt a most sensible change in the weather.  The 20th, at noon, we were in the latitude of 39 deg. 58’ S., longitude 94 deg. 37’ W. The day was clear and pleasant, and I may say, the only summer’s day we had had since we left New Zealand.  The mercury in the thermometer rose to 66.

We still continued to steer to the north, as the wind remained in the old quarter; and the next day, at noon, we were in the latitude 37 deg. 54’ S.; which was the same that Juan Fernandez’s discovery is said to lie in.  We, however, had not the least signs of any land lying in our neighbourhood.

The next day at noon, we were in latitude 36 deg. 10’ S., longitude 94 deg. 56’ W. Soon after, the wind veered to S.S.E., and enabled us to steer W.S.W., which I thought the most probable direction to find the land of which we were in search; and yet I had no hopes of succeeding, as we had a large hollow swell from the same point.  We however continued this course till the 25th, when the wind having veered again round to the westward, I gave it up, and stood away to the north, in order to get into the latitude of Easter Island:  our latitude, at this time, was 37 deg. 52’, longitude 101 deg. 10’ W.

I was now well assured that the discovery of Juan Fernandez, if any such was ever made, can be nothing but a small island; there being hardly room for a large land, as will fully appear by the tracks of Captain Wallis, Bougainville, of the Endeavour, and this of the Resolution.  Whoever wants to see an account of the discovery in question, will meet with it in Mr Dalrymple’s collection of voyages to the south seas.  This gentleman places it under the meridian of 90 deg., where I think it cannot be; for M. de Bougainville seems to have run down under that meridian; and we had now examined the latitude in which it is said to lie, from the meridian of 94 deg. to 101 deg..  It is not probable it can lie to the east of 90 deg.; because if it did, it must have been seen, at one time or other, by ships bound from the northern to the southern parts of America.  Mr Pengre, in a little treatise concerning the transit of Venus, published in 1768, gives some account of land having been discovered by the Spaniards in 1714, in the latitude of 38 deg., and 550 leagues from the coast of Chili, which is in the longitude of 110 deg. or 111 deg. west, and within a degree or two of my track in the Endeavour; so that this can hardly be its situation.  In short, the only probable situation it can have must be about the meridian of 106 deg. or 108 deg. west; and then it can only be a small isle, as I have already observed.