CAPE DIRECTION. 105 



the opportunity of accompanying her. I had only 

 time to take a pair of walking boots and a hammer, 

 having stowed my gun away, as there was nothing 

 to shoot upon the reefs. Yule however lent me 

 a double-barrelled gun that he had bought from a 

 merchant vessel. It was a Belgian piece, and not 

 a very trust- worthy looking affair : however, I spent 

 the afternoon in cleaning and putting it to rights, 

 getting some English caps filed down to fit the 

 nipples, and after firing it once or twice I thought 

 I might depend on its going off at all events. We 

 ran in some distance over clear ground, but on 

 approaching the shore passed through some coral 

 reefs, with sand banks on them, which we threaded 

 till we got into King's track, when we ran past 

 Night Island, and anchored at sunset off Cape 

 Direction. We came to, about three miles from the 

 shore, as it was very shoal inshore of us, and 

 were then only in three fathoms water, with a 

 bottom of green mud. This mud when dried was 

 wholly calcareous and soluble in acids. 



June c 25. — At daylight this morning we saw a 

 large canoe near us with two men in it fishing. We 

 shouted to them, and after some hesitation they 

 came alongside, and although they would not come 

 on board, they frankly handed up to us their spears 

 and other things, in exchange for bottles, biscuit, 

 and ribbon, having apparently communicated with 

 Europeans before. The canoe was more than 20 

 feet long, made of a tree very much hollowed out, 



