QUELPAERT, an island lying in the mouth of the channel of Japan, and subject to the king of CORRA (See that article Encycl.) Till the last voyage of La Pérouse, this island was known to Europeans only by the wreck of the Dutch ship Sparrow-hawk in 1635. On the 21st of May 1787, the French Commodore made this island, and determined the south point of it to be in Lat. north, and in Lon. east from Paris. He ran along the whole south east side, at six leagues distance, and says that it is scarcely possible to find an island which affords a finer aspect; a peak of about a thousand toises, which is visible at the distance of eighteen or twenty leagues, occupies the middle of the island, of which it is doubtless the reservoir; the land gradually slopes towards the sea, whence the habitations appear as an amphitheatre. The soil seemed to be cultivated to a very great height. By the assistance of glasses was perceived the division of fields; they were very much parcelled out, which is the strongest proof of a great population. The very varied gradation of colours, from the different states of cultivation, rendered the view of this island still more agreeable. Unfortunately, it belongs to a people who are prohibited from all communication with strangers, and who detain in slavery those who have the misfortune to be shipwrecked on these coasts. Some of the Dutchmen of the ship Sparrow-hawk, after a captivity of eighteen years there, during which they received many bastinadoes, found means to take away a bark, and to cross to Japan, from which they arrived at Batavia, and afterwards at Amsterdam.
QUEUE D'ARONDE, or Swallow's Tail, in fortification, is a detached or outwork, whose sides spread or open towards the campaign, or draw narrower and closer towards the gorge. Of this kind are either single or double tenailles, and some horn-works, whose sides are not parallel, but are narrow at the gorge, and open at the head, like the figure of a swallow's tail. On the contrary, when the sides are less than the gorge, the work is called contre queue d'aronde.
QUEUE d'aronde, in carpentry, a method of jointing, called also dove-tailing.