+ 8 4 



The National Geographic Magazine 



follows: ' ' On my way to San Francisco 

 from Tahiti on the morning of March 

 17, 1902, in the latitude (see map) of 

 18 56' N., longitude 136 10' W., at 

 5.30 a. m. , I passed two patches of what 

 appeared to be, and no doubt was, shoal 

 water. It was blowing a strong trade 

 wind at the time and the sea was too 

 rough to lower a boat to sound, which 

 I should have done had it been smooth. 

 Meeting a shoal so suddenly and unex- 

 pectedly, I did not leave the bridge for 

 several hours, thinking I might meet 

 others. I had to alter the ship's course 

 two points to avoid the patches, as they 

 were right ahead when first seen. The 

 course from Tahiti does not lie in the 

 direction of these shoals, but' strong 

 trades compelled me to keep off in that 

 direction that I might carry fore-and-aft 

 sail. The latitude can be relied on to 

 one or two miles. The longitude to, say, 

 five miles." Captain Lawless further 

 writes: " It will be seen that at 5.30 a. m. 

 the sun could cast no cloud shadows on 

 the water, the rifts in the clouds could 

 reflect no bright streaks, and as there 

 were two separate patches, divided by a 

 clear channel, it could not be attributed 

 to any discoloration caused by whales, 

 nor could it be schools of fish, as the 

 approach of the steamer would frighten 

 them away. Although the sea was fairly 

 rough, it did not break, showing that 

 there must be 30 or 40 feet of water over 

 the shoal, but I venture to say that in a 

 storm, when the waves are 15 to 20 feet 

 high, it would break. By consulting the 

 chart, it will be seen that this part of 

 the ocean is used but very little, and 

 shoals, or even small low islands, might 

 still exist there which are not now 

 charted." 



This observation of shoal water, as 

 thus reported by Captain Lawless, indi- 

 cating the possible existence of a shoal 

 region, where reefs and islands might 

 naturally occur, did much to revive and 

 stimulate afresh the interest, not only 

 of the Hydrographic Office, for its im- 



portance to navigators, but also of all 

 persons who for any conceivable reason 

 might in any way be concerned in the 

 question of the existence of islands, 

 reefs, or shoals in that part of the ocean. 



Among such persons was one Capt. 

 John De Greaves, then living at Hono- 

 lulu, and there sometimes formerly 

 known as the King's "scientific ad- 

 viser," who, it was said, during many 

 years prior thereto had constantly as- 

 serted his positive knowledge of such an 

 island in that region referred to, claim- 

 ing to have discovered and landed upon 

 such island, and to have found deposits 

 of guano thereon, in the summer of 

 1859, while on a voyage from the port 

 of Honolulu, Hawaii, to the port of 

 Callao, Peru. The memories of his 

 visit having been apparently aroused by 

 the announcement of Captain Lawless' s 

 observation, he gave a very full and 

 minutely detailed narrative of his ad- 

 venture to a local press reporter, who 

 promptly sent the story to the New 

 York Sunday Herald, in which paper 

 it was published on May 4, 1902. 



About this time certain incidental 

 circumstances had led by chance to the 

 revival of a very deep personal interest, 

 which I had strongly felt during more 

 than forty years, in the generally for- 

 gotten mysterious fate of the United 

 States sloop-of-war Levant, which hav- 

 ing sailed on September 18, i860, from 

 the port of Hilo, Hawaii, for the port 

 of Panama, has never since been heard 

 from by any trace whatever, unless it 

 be in certain wreckage found on the 

 south shore of Hawaii, in June, 1861, 

 there and then identified by local au- 

 thorities as wreckage from the Leva?it. 



When I read in the Herald on May 

 4, 1902, that De Greaves had sailed from 

 Hawaii for Callao in the summer of 

 1859, one year before the sailing of the 

 Levant from practically the same point 

 of departure, and, so far as sailing 

 courses might be concerned, for the 

 same destination, at the same time of 



