6o4 Voyage of the Kovara. 



reflected in all their lustre in the smooth mirror of the ocean ; 

 the deep, blue, unfathomable ocean appearing like a second 

 firmament beneath our feet ! Nothing in the gay scene around 

 seemed out of harmony with the mournful act which the 

 community of Christians on board the Novara had been cele- 

 brating. Everything about us — the briglitly glistening stars, 

 the whispering ripple of the waves, the balmy atmosphere, all 

 left an im23ression of a higher state of felicity and tranquil 

 happiness, and seemed to remind us that everything in the 

 universe, even the poor remains we had just committed to the 

 waves, obeyed but one eternal, immutable law ! 



On the morning of 17th October, three boats j)ut off from 

 the Novara with some of the officers and all the naturalists of 

 the Expedition, bound for Sikayana, between three and four 

 miles distant, while the frigate cruised about in the vicinity. 



Stewart's Atoll (8° 22' S., 162° 58' E.) is a semi-lunar 

 coral reef of about sixteen miles in circumference, with a deep 

 lagoon in its centre, and five small wooded islands on the reef 

 itself, which are visible from the deck of a ship about twelve 

 miles away, and were first discovered by Captain Hunter, in 

 May, 1791. These islands are named Sikayana, Faole, Man- 

 duiloto, Bar^na, and Maduawe, and are so overgrown with 

 cocoa-nut palms, that they appear capable of supporting a 

 population of about 1 000 souls (with the wants and require- 

 ments of men in the tropics). 



The two largest islands, Sikayana and Fdole, lie exactly 

 at the sharp horns of the lune-shaped atoll. Here we again 



