^c^6 Voyage of the Novara. 



scattered through every part of the island, had no doubt 

 essentially contributed to the speedy diffusion of the malady. 

 Of the thirty white settlers, who had all been inoculated, 

 only one was attacked, and he soon got well again. In 

 August, 1854, tlie destroyer disappeared almost as suddenly 

 as he came, and has since then spared Puynipet a second 

 visit, but wherever one goes the traces of the disease are 

 visible in the faces and on the bodies of the natives. 



While picking up this information, we were getting nearer 

 and nearer to Roankiddi Harbour on the S.W. of the island, 

 and Tellet now stated he could not undertake to conduct us 

 further, as there resided a pilot in the harbour whom he 

 was not unwilling to give a job to. Another boat was now 

 approaching the frigate, which had on board the regular 

 pilot of Roankiddi Harbour, a Virginia Negro, named 

 Johnson. Our man Tellet now took his leave, and set out in 

 his boat on his retui*n to Middle Harbour. Many a longing 

 glance did we cast at the spot, where for the first time we 

 were to be privileged to examine the wonders of the coral 

 beds of the South Sea. For Puynipet is one of the finest 

 examples known of a lofty island of the great ocean regu- 

 larly hemmed in by wall-like reefs, by far the majority of 

 the other islands being mere low '' atolls." Unfortunately 

 the breeze was unsteady and very light ; the sky looked so 

 gloomy and threatening that we had to haul off again from 

 the island, and steer to the S.E., so as not to approach the 

 reef too closely during the night. In the morning we once 



