MORE CORAL ISLANDS. 273 



tants, if, indeed, these islands be really the Pes- 

 cadores. If so, these people must have become 

 extinct long ago, as no monument of their former 

 existence is now visible. When we had com- 

 pleted our survey, we again proceeded west- 

 ward, and, within half an hour, the watch 

 again announced land in sight. The evening 

 was now so far advanced, that we determined 

 to lay-to, in order to avoid the danger of too 

 near an approach to the coral reefs during the 

 night, and deferred our survey till the follow- 

 ing morning. At break of day we saw the 

 islands which we have called the Pescadores, 

 lying six miles to the eastward ; whilst those 

 which had risen on our horizon the preceding 

 evening had wholly disappeared. We had di- 

 verged from them in the night ; but, with a 

 brisk trade- wind, we regained the sight of them 

 in an hour. At eight o'clock in the morning 

 we came within three miles of the nearest is- 

 land, and running parallel with the land, began 

 our examination. It was another group of 

 coral islands connected by reefs round a basin. 

 Here also vegetation was luxuriant, and the 

 cocoa-trees rose to a towering height, but not a 

 N 5 



