The China Sea directory - Sabrizain.org

224 KEELING OR COCOS ISLANDS. [chap. iv.
and then to steer direct for it, borrowing a little to the eastward or
westward, when it is approached, as may be required by the prevailing wind
or other circumstances.
Sunda strait to Cape of Good Hope.—In S.E. monsoon
period the track from Sunda strait is direct, but the reported position of
Glendinning shoal, northward of Keeling islands, should be avoided. In
N.W. monsoon period, stand to the southward (westward of Christmas
island if the wind permits), into the S.E. trade, then direct.
.THE KEELING OR COCOS ISLANDS are situated about
600 miles in a S.W. by W. direction from Java head, nearly in the direct
route of homeward bound vessels vid the Cape of Good Hope. They are
in two distinct divisions, lying north and south of each other, having a
channelbetween them about 15 miles wide.*
The west point of Direction island, at the north-east extreme of South
Keeling, is in about lat. 12° 6' S., long, about 96° 53' E.
These islands were discovered in 1608, by Captain William Keeling in
the service of the East India Company, but were little known previous to
the visit of Captain J. Clunies Ross of the ship Borneo, who partially
refitted his ship here in 1825.
Captain Ross returned to the islands in 1827 with some Scotch colonists,
but found them occupied by Alexander Hare, who with a large number of
Malay followers had arrived the same year. The two factions lived on
bad terms with each other, and many of Ross' colonists left the place owing
to its being already occupied, but eventually the Ross' influence became
the stronger, and Hare deserted by his followers, left the islands. In
1836, the Keeliugs were visited by Captain Robert Fitzroy who surveyed
the group, the chart of which appears to be still correct in its main features,
but the head of the lagoon is shoaling.
In 1857, Captain Stephen G-. Fremantle, in H.M.S. Juno, visited the
Keelings and formally annexed them to the British Crown. In 1878 the
islands were placed under the government of Ceylon. In 1886 they were
transferred to the government of the Straits Settlements.
South. Keeling.—The northern division consists of one island only,
whilst the southern division or South Keeling, numbering about 20, form
a roughly broken circle nearly approaching the horse-shoe shape common
to coral atolls. The two largest islands of this southern group, named
Selima and Ross, are about 6 miles in length, and lie on the south-east
* See Admiralty chart :—Cooos or Keeling islands, No. 2,510, scale, m = 2 inches.
For an account of a Visit to the Cocos islands, see Proceedings of the Royal Geographical
Society for December 1879, page 777, and Report of the visit of Mr. E. B. Birch, of the
Straits Settlements, in H.M.S. Espoir in 1885.
f The London Gazette, 5th February 1886.