THE SETTLEMENT. 249 



is a small snow-white tern, which smoothly hovers 

 at the distance of a few feet above one's head, its 

 large black eye scanning, with quiet curiosity, your 

 expression. Little imagination is required to fan- 

 cy that so light and delicate a body must be ten- 

 anted by some wandering fairy spirit. 



Smidai/, Aj)ril 3d. — After sei-vice I accompanied 

 Captain Fitz Roy to the settlement, situated at the 

 distance of some miles, on the point of an islet 

 thickly covered with tall cocoa-nut trees. Captain 

 Ross and Mr. Liesk live in a large bam-like house, 

 open at both ends, and lined with mats made of 

 woven bark. The houses of the Malays are ar- 

 ranged along the shore of the lagoon. The whole 

 place had rather a desolate aspect, for there were 

 no gardens to show the signs of care and cultiva- 

 tion. The natives belong to different islands in the 

 East Indian Archipelago, but all speak the same 

 language : we saw the inhabitants of Borneo, Cel- 

 ebes, Java, and Sumatra. In colour they resemble 

 the Tahitians, from whom they do not widely dif- 

 fer in features. Some of the women, however, 

 show a good deal of the Chinese character. I 

 liked both their general expressions and the sound 

 of their voices. They appeared poor, and their 

 houses were destitute of furniture ; but it was ev- 

 ident, from the plumpness of the little children, that 

 cocoa-nuts and turtle afford no bad sustenance. 



On this island the wells are situated from which 

 ships obtain water. At first sight it appears not a 

 little remarkable that the fresh water should regu- 

 larly ebb and flow with the tides ; and it has even 

 been imagined that sand has the power of filtering 

 the salt from the sea-water. These ebbing wells 

 are common on some of the low islands in the 

 West Indies. The compressed sand, or porous 

 coral rock, is pemieated like a sponge with the 



