INDIAN- OCEAN. 



237 



ISLANDS, REEFS, SHOALS, &c. 



Off-shore whaling ground, from 103 to 115, in lat. from 3 

 to 5, 7 S., and sometimes on the line, Captain Mitchell discov- 

 ered a low island well covered with timber. It was not seen until 

 the vessel was near, and had it been night, the chances are that 

 the vessel would have been lost. There were no other islands in 

 sight, and this one not on any chart. The island should bear the 

 name of its discoverer, Mitchell. 



Navigator's islands. These islands are said to be eight in num- 

 ber, were discovered by Bougainville, and examined by Perouse 

 in 1787, and may be said to extend from 14 9' to 18 57' south. 

 The number of inhabitants is probably from forty to fifty thousand. 



Captain Worth, of the Howard, informs us that, having visited 

 most of the islands in the South Pacific, he considers the island 

 of Ottewhy as presenting advantages and facilities to whalemen, 

 superior to those of any other island in that ocean. It affords 

 fruit, yams, poultry, swine, &c., in the greatest abundance, plenty 

 of wood and excellent water. For a musket the natives give thir- 

 teen hogs, or eight hundred to a thousand yams ; and great quan- 

 tities of fowls, cocoa-nuts, bananas, &c., may be purchased for a 

 few pipes, flints and blue-glass beads. The fruit is generally ob- 



