English Dictionary

Standing from the shore, with topsails and courses close reefed, M. de Peyrouse hoped, that he might double the PESCADORE ISLES, by keeping the ship's head to the N. W., before a N. N. E. wind. To his astonishment, at nine o'clock in the morning, several rocks, making a part of that groupe of isles, were seen before them, in the bearing of N. N. W. The billows rolled so high, and so tempestuous, that the breakers from these rocks were not to be distinguished from them. They now tacked and stood towards Formosa. In this continuation of their course, they found the channel, between Formosa and the isles N. E. of the Pescadores, not to exceed four leagues in breadth. Perceiving it, at length, to be impossible, that they should succeed in accomplishing their course through this channel, before the change of the monsoon ; they were induced to direct their progress towards the most southern of the Pescadores, bearing W. S. W. with the purpose of passing to the Eastward of Formosa. They sailed along, parallel to the Pescadores, at two leagues of distance from them.