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C H A P , conspicuous. There are several sandy bays, in which green turtle are
m i l l sometimes so numerous that they quite hide the colour of the shore.
Jnne, The Sea yields an abundance of fish ; the rocks and caverns arc the re-
sort of crayfish and other shellfish ; and the shores are the refuge of
snipes, plovers, and wild pigeons. At the upper part of the port
there is a small basin, formed by coral reefs, conveniently adapted
for heaving a ship down; and on the whole it is a most desirable place
of resort for a whale-ship. By a board nailed against a tree, it appeared
that the port had been entered in September, 1825, by an
English ship named the Supply, which I believe to be the first authenticated
visit made to the place.
Taking possession of uninhabited islands is now a mere matter of
form ; still I could not allow so fair an opportunity to escape, and declared
them to be the property of the British government by nailing a
sheet of copper to a tree, with the necessary particulars engraved upon
it. As the harbour had no name, I called it Port Lloyd, out of regard
to the late Bishop of Oxford. The island in which it is situated I named
after Sir Eobert Peel, His Majesty’s Secretary of State for the Home
Department.
As ive rowed on shore towards the basin, which, in consequence of
there being ten fathoms water all over it, was named Ten Fathom
Hole, we were surrounded by sharks so daring and voracious that
they bit at the oars and the boat’s rudder, and though wounded
with the boat-hook returned several times to the attack. At the
upper end of Ten Fathom Hole there were a great many green turtle;
and the boat’s crew were sent to turn some of them for our sea-stock.
The sharks, to the number of forty at least, as soon as they observed
these animals in confusion, rushed in amongst them, and, to the great
danger of our people, endeavoured to seize them by the fins, several
of which we noticed to have been bitten off. 'Ihe turtle weighed from
three to four hundred-weight each, and were so inactive that, had
there been a sufficient number of men, the whole shoal might have
been turned.
AYittrcin and his companion, the men whom we found upon the
island, w ere living on the south side of the harbour, in a house built from
the plank of the AVilliam, upon a substantial foundation of copper bolts, C H A P .
procured from the wreck of the ship by burning the timbers. They had
a number of fine fat hogs, a well-stocked pigeon-house, and several gar- J«»e,
dens, in which there were growing pumpkins, water-melons, potatoes,
sweet potatoes, and fricoli beans; and they had planted forty cocoa-nuts
in other parts of the bay. In such an establishment Wittrein found
himself very comfortable, and contemplated getting a wife from the
Sandwich Islands; but I am sorry to find that he soon relinquished
the idea, and that there is now no person to take care of the garden,
which by due management might have become extremely useful to
whale-ships, which are often afflicted with scurvy by their arrival at
this part of their voyage. 'Ihe pigs, I have since learned, have become
wild and numerous, and will in a short time destroy all the roots, if not
the cabbage-trees, which at the time of our visit were in abundance,
and, besides being a delicate vegetable, were no doubt an excellent
antiscorbutic.
We learned from Wittrein, who had resided eight months upon the
island, that in January of 1826 it had been visited by a tremendous
storm, and an earthquake which shook the island so violently, and the
water at the same time rose so high, that he and his companion, thinking
the island about to be swallowed up by the sea, fled to the hills
for safety. This gale, which resembled the typhoons in the China sea,
began at north and went round the compass by the westward, blowing
all the while with great violence, and tearing up trees by the roots:
it destroyed the schooner which the crew of the AVilliam had began to
build, and washed the cargo of the ship, which since her wreck had
been floating about the bay, up into the country. By the a)ipearance
of some of the casks, the water must have risen twelve feet above the
usual level*.
Wc were informed that during winter there is mucli bad weather
from the north and north-west; but as summer approaches these winds
abate, and are succeeded by others from the southward and south-eastward,
which prevail throughout that season, and are generally attended
* T h e s e am e n a ffirm ed th a t i t ro s e tw e n ty .