1841.] THE UNION GRCUP. 395 



170th meridian, western longitude, and are famous only for the 

 quantity of turtles taken here by parties of Tahitians ati i 

 Samoans, — the Peacock and Flying Fish made the Duke of 

 York's Island, or Oatafu, in latitude 8° 36' S., and lon-:i 

 tude 172° 23' 52" W., on the 25th day of January. On the 

 28th instant, they arrived off the Duke of Clarence Island, 

 called by the natives Nukonono, a few miles further to the; 

 south-east.* Early in the morning of the 29th, having con- 

 tinued on their way in the same direction, they discovered 

 a new island, to which the name of Bowditch Island was 

 given, though the proper native appellation was ascertained 

 to be Fakaafo. These three islands form the Union Group. 



(2.) The three islands last mentioned Jie very nearly in a 

 straight row or line, running from south-east to north-west — 

 Oatafu being about one hundred and thirty-five miles distant 

 from Fakaafo, or Bowditch Island. These islands are of cofal 

 formation, and consist of rings or circlets of coral surrounding 

 lagoons, like the atolls of the Paumotu Group. The reefs, 

 which are in no place over ten feet above the water, are covered 

 with a soil consisting of decomposed coral, vegetable mould, 

 and guano ; and they are adorned with the most beautiful 

 cocoa-nut trees, with the pandanus, the pisonia, the ficus, and 

 the tournefortia. The most luxuriant parasitic ferns cover 

 the loftiest trees, and the long delicate sprays of the jasmine 

 depend here and there from the overhanging branches, and 

 scatter their flowers and their perfume on every passing 

 wind. 



Oatafu is but thrc miles in length, from east to west, and 

 two and a half miles wide, and contains about one hundred 

 and fifty inhabitants. Nuknnono is seven and a quarter 

 miles long, from north to south, and five miles wide : it is 

 also populated, and is supposed to contain two or three hun- 

 dred inhabitants. Fakaafo is the most important island of 

 the three, and the great chief, to whom the natives of the 

 group, or cluster, pay deference, resides here. It is called 



* Lord Byron, the English navigator, discovered Oatafu and Nukonono, in 

 1765, and named them after the Royal Dukes. 



