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 



