242 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



treasure in 1845, rested wholly on the ease with 

 which unlimited quantities of sweet water could be 

 obtained, and during the years of the whaling in- 

 dustry, it was a resort of ships, a place of rest and 

 refreshment, a place to explore, in the intervals of 

 getting wood, water and coconuts aboard. Cer- 

 tainly they did not spare the coconuts and with char- 

 acteristic indifference to the future, they obtained 

 the nuts by the easiest method, which was to cut 

 down the trees. There are still coconut palms 

 on the island, but pitifully few compared with 

 the old descriptions in which they seem to have 

 been almost the dominant vegetation. During 

 Captain Gissler's tenancy he planted more, as 

 well as plantains, limes, coffee, and various vege- 

 tables. 



Captain Belcher writes, "On the 3rd of April, 

 1838, we made the island of Cocos and on the fol- 

 lowing morning observed two whale ships at anchor. 

 . . . On landing, I was surprised to find a hut 

 and several seamen, one Portuguese, one English, 

 and five blacks, Americans, landed by their own 

 demand from one of the American whalers. At 

 first I suspected foul play, but on the masters of 

 the vessels landing and stating the facts to me in 

 the presence of the men, they acknowledged that 

 they preferred living on the island to sailing in his 

 vessel. Their contract was only 'from the Sand- 

 wich Islands until they reached a port.' They 

 were evidently bad characters. Their only subsist- 

 ence was fish, pigs, boobies, noddies and other ma- 

 rine birds frequenting the island. 



