Roggewein thought proper to sail from this island without farther loss of time, and before his departure held a council of his officers, in which he stated his instructions, which were,—­If no discovery of importance could be made in the latitude and longitude in which they then were, that he should return home.  Some of the council were much astonished at this, and remonstrated, That having already gone so far, and met with such encouragement to hope for discoveries of great importance, they thought it would betray a great want of spirit not to proceed.  To this Roggewein answered, That they had now been out ten months, having still a long voyage to make to the East Indies; that provisions began to grow scarce, and, above all, that the crews were already so much diminished in number, and the survivors in so weak a condition, that if twenty more were to die or fall sick, there would not be a sufficient number remaining to navigate both ships.  The true reason, however, in the opinion of the author of this voyage, was the anxiety to get to the East Indies before the change of the monsoon, in which case they must have remained six months longer in these seas.  Some of the officers opposed this motion to the last, earnestly entreating the commodore that he would rather winter at the land mentioned by Ferdinand de Quiros, from which they could not now be more than 150 leagues distant.  They insisted that it was wrong to think of going to the East Indies, that being directly contrary to the design of their instructions:  And that by continuing in the same western course, they could not fail to fall in with some island, where they might land and procure refreshments, remaining on shore till all their sick men were recovered, and erecting a fort to defend themselves against the natives.  If this were complied with, they said they might afterwards return home by an eastern coarse; and, by taking time, might effectually complete the discoveries on which they were sent.

These reasons were listened to with patience and civility, but had not the weight they deserved; and a resolution was formed to continue their coarse for New Britain and New Guinea, and thence to the East Indies, by way of the Moluccas, being in hopes to procure there a supply of provisions and necessaries, together with a reinforcement of seamen, in case they should then be too weak for navigating their ships home to Europe.  In consequence of this resolution, an end was put to all hope of visiting the land of Quiros, which the best seamen on board thought might have been easily discovered, called by him and Torres the Islands of Solomon, and reported to be beautiful and fertile, and abounding in gold, silver, precious stones, and spices.[5]

[Footnote 5:  We have here omitted a long, uninteresting, and inconclusive disquisition on the supposed Terra Australis, as altogether founded on supposition and error.—­E.]