TO GUAHON. 205 



south as laid down on Arrowsmith's chart. At 

 two o'clock in the afternoon, after we had been 

 saluted by a number of sea-birds, land was an- 

 nounced, wdiich appeared at a distance of thirteen 

 miles in W. by N. 1 W. Only a small round hill 

 was visible to us. An hour later, at a distance of 

 eight miles, we already saw that this hill formed 

 the northern part of a low island, the whole cir- 

 cumference of which might be about a mile. A 

 mile north of this island a second was seen, just 

 as low, and still smaller. While we were taken up 

 in the survey, the sailor on duty exclaimed, ** There 

 are rocks under the ship !'* I immediately had the 

 ship turned to south, and we happily escaped the 

 danger of wrecking on these rocks, which we, daz- 

 zled by the sun, had not previously observed. The 

 distance from land was here five miles, the rocks 

 were scarcely two fathoms under water, and close 

 to them the lead could not reach the bottom. To 

 judge from this, the shoal was either of very small 

 extent, or it was the point of a coral-bank with 

 which this island seems to be surrounded far into 

 the sea, as is proved by the breakers which we after- 

 wards discovered to the N. and E. I steered, after 

 having escaped this danger, towards the islands, to 

 try to approach them from another side ; but this 

 was also in vain, for we were soon convinced, by the 

 colour of the water, of the impossibility of touch- 

 ing at them. Seamen may therefore take warning 

 not to come too close to these islands, which, 



