Note 1 — Chapter XIV · VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY CAPTAIN GEORGE ANSON, IN THE YEARS 1740-1744.1 (continued 7)

Footnote 1:

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The Bashee Islands were so called by Dampier from the name of a liquor used by the natives. Four of them are inhabited, and are tolerably fertile, producing sugar canes, pine apples, plantaines, potatoes, &c. and having some hogs and goats. The inhabitants, who are reckoned a harmless and peaceable race, are said to resemble the Japanese, and probably are derived from them. The unfortunate Peyreuse visited one of the most northerly of these islands, and found its latitude to be 21° 9' 13" N. Arrowsmith's map lays them down very particularly. The passage betwixt Formosa and these islands is held very dangerous on account of the rock called Vele Rete, the precise situation of which is matter of discord among the navigators. Captain Krusenstern went through this passage during the night, and that a stormy one too, with perfect safety, keeping the middle of the channel, and having men continually on the look-out. He seems to prefer the position of Vele Rete and its reef of rocks, (of about two miles circuit,) as given by Broughton, according to whose observations the latitude is 21° 43' 24", and the longitude 239° 15'.E.