634 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES IN MALAYSIA AND ASIA, 



it in the ship's cutter, but were obliged to return, as the time at 

 our disposal was not sufficient in the state of the weather. All 

 we could do was to land upon some of the sandbanks or cays, 

 where an immense number of boobies had made their nests. 

 Here, also, gi'eat flocks of halcyons or frigate-birds were hovering, 

 and waited each evening for the returning boobies with their 

 provender of fishes to feed their young. Tlie plundering of the 

 poor boobies has often been described by various naturalists from 

 the times of Basil Hall to our own day. We used to witness it 

 every night from our anchorage. It is not without amusement 

 that one sees the weaker bird made to disgorge the result of his 

 day's fishing, which, as it falls, the frigate bird catches with a 

 swoop ere it reaches the water. In spite of it all the young birds 

 dont do badly, though they abound in the low stunted brushwood 

 which grows on the cays. The vegetation was of the usual kind 

 found on all coral islands from Australia to Singapore, such as 

 Terminalia, Sccevola, Cordia, Barringtonia, (kc, ic. 



Admiral Belcher of H.M.S. ' Samarang ' vi.sited the Caga- 

 yanes in 1845. He says, " ElFected a landing on a small rocky 

 island in the channel between the two largest islands. A rapid 

 survey was made during our detention of six hours. Found three 

 more islands and very extensive reefs extending as far as the eye 

 could reach, from our most elevated situation about 100 feet above 

 the level of the sea. The islets are upon the outlines of the 

 northern reefs, the most distant about 10 miles. Visited by a 

 boat from the pueblo, which was pretty large and contained a 

 whitewashed foi't and church. We had not time to examine it ; 

 but one of the authorities deputed to make inquiries about us, and 

 who endeavoured to make himself understood in a jargon of 

 Spanish, Malay and Visayan, assured me that everything I 

 inquired for (bullocks, vegetables and fowls) could be procured at 

 the pueblo. From the tenor of their inquiries, I was led to 

 infer that whale-ships touched here for water and refreshments. 

 The bays and creeks in the interior of the extensive sound formed 

 by the two greater islands are very picturesque, and have at their 

 entrance or chord of the bay a depth of not less than 3^ fathoms." 



