CHAP. sale. The only article they would not part with, though we offered a
Jan.
1326.
higher price than it seemed to deserve, was a stick with a bunch of
black tern feathers suspended to it. At Lagoon, and other islands
which W’e visited both before and afterwards, the natives carried one or
more of these sticks: they are mentioned as being seen by tlie earliest
voyagers, and are probably marks of distinction or of amity.
These people so much resemble the Lagoon Islanders in person,
manners, language, and dress, as to need no description: tlie island is
also of the same formation, and has apparently the same productions.
We noticed only one canoe; but no doubt they have others, as a constant
commmunication is kept up witli the islands to vvindw’ard. It
may be recollected that it was upon this island Captain Wallis found
all the natives collected w'ho had deserted Queen Charlotte’s Island on
his approach. Though these tw’o places are many miles out of sight
of each other, yet their canoes took the exact direction which, being
afterwards follow’cd by Captain Wallis, led to the discovery of the
island.
Next morning we saw land to the S. by E ., which proved to be a small
coral island, answering in situation nearly to that of Carysfort Island,
discovered by Captain Edwards, but so small as to render it very unlikely
that it should be the same. Though w’e ranged the shore very
closely, we did not perceive any inhabitants. It was well w’ooded, and
had several clusters of cocoa-nut trees. The next morning parties were
sent to cut down some of the trees for fire-wood. The surf ran high
upon the shore ; but, w’ith the assistance of a small raft, a disembarkation
was effected without any serious accident. Several of the officers,
anxious to land upon this our first discovery in these seas, joined the
party in spite of a sound ducking, which was the smallest penalty attached
to the undertaking. In one of these attempts the Naturalist
was unfortunately dra'vn into a deep hole in the coral by the recoil of
the sea, and, but for prompt assistance, would in all probability have
lost his life.
The island proved to be only a mile and three-quarters in length,
from north to south, and a mile and three-tenths in width. It consisted
of a narrow strip of land of an oval form, not more than tw’o
hundred yards wide in any part, with a lagoon in its centre, wffiich the CHAP.
colour of the water indicated to be of no great depth. In places this
lake washed the trunks of the trees ; in others it was separated from
Jan.
1826.
them by a wliitish beach, formed principally of cardinm and venus-
shells. Shoals of small fish of the chretodon genus, highly curious and
beautiful in colour, sported along the clear margin of the lake, and
with them two or three species of fistularia; several moluscous animals
and shell-fish occupied the hollows of the coral (principally madrepora
cervi-coriiis); and the chama giganteus was found so completely overgrown
by the coral that just sufficient space was left for it to open its
shell; a fact which tends to show the rapidity with which coral increases.
Upon the shores of the lagoon, the pandanus, cocoa-nut, toufano,
scoevola koenigii, the suriana (whose aroma may be perceived at the
distance of several miles), the l a r g e clump-tree, pemphis acidula, tour-
nefortia sericea, and other evergreens common to these formations, constituted
a thick wood, and afforded a cool retreat from the scorching
rays of a vertical sun, and the still greater annoyance arising from the
reflection of the bright white sand ; a luxury which until our arrival was
enjoyed only by a few black and white tern, tropic and frigate birds,
and some soldiei-crabs which had taken up their abode in the vacated
turbo-shells.
Under these trees were three large pits containing several tons of
fresh water, and not far from them some low huts similar to those described
at the other islands, and a tomb-stone shaped like that at W liit-
sunday Island. YY"e judged that the huts had been long deserted, from
the circumstance of the tern and other aquatic birds occupying some
calabashes which were left in them. Among several things found in this
deserted village were part of a scraper used by mcrcliant-ships, and a large
fish-hook, which W’e preserved, without suspecting that they would at a
future day clear up the doubt that these articles were calculated to throw
upon the merit of discovering this island, to which we otherwise felt an
indisputable claim. Our suspicions on this head were also strengthened
by noticing that a cocoa-nut tree had been cut down with an instrument
sharper than the stone axes of the Indians. W e had, however, no direct
proof that the island had been before visited by any ship; and we con