338 
PAUMOTU GROUP. 
water. There were nineteen men counted, which would make the 
population about fifty souls. No women or children were seen. 
At all the inhabited islands we found the greatest numbers of the 
common house-fly, while at Honden Island (uninhabited) none were 
perceived. No one can estimate the annoyance they cause, until it 
has been experienced. 
The huts of the natives of Otooho are different from those of the 
neighbouring island, but fully as rude. 
At about three quarters of an hour after sunset, the naturalists were 
again on board, and we bore away on our course to Raraka. Having 
been informed that several islands were supposed to be in this 
neighbourhood, that were known to the natives, but not laid down on 
the charts, I determined to lie to during the night, and at daylight we 
again bore away, spreading the squadron in open order of sailing. 
On the 29th, at daylight, land was reported, and we soon ascer- 
tained that it was not laid down on the charts. It is low, nearly 
of a circular form, and well covered with trees and shrubs, and has 
a lagoon of some extent. Its centre is in latitude 15° 42' 25" S., 
longitude 144° 38' 45" W. I named it King's Island, after the man 
at the masthead who first discovered it. After completing the survey 
of it, we landed on its lee side, where the water was quite smooth, 
and spent the afternoon in examining it. There were no natives 
on it, but every indication that it had been inhabited recently by 
a party of pearl fishers. The lagoon appears to be well supplied 
with the pearl oyster. We found on the island two small springs 
of fresh water, near its lagoon, and a good supply of cocoa-nuts. 
Many specimens of plants were obtained, and several interesting 
objects of natural history were added to our collections; for an account 
of these, the reader is referred to the reports of the naturalists. 
This island had more soil on it than any yet met with, and seemed 
to be productive. Large quantities of cocoa-nuts were lying about in 
heaps, that had been gathered by those who had visited it before us. 
The magnetic observations were also made here. The width of 
the island to the lagoon was found to be twelve hundred feet. A 
very narrow reef surrounded it, and the whole island was but six feet 
above the sea reef. No coral blocks were seen. It lies twenty miles 
to the northeast of Raraka. There is no opening to the lagoon, and 
the island is thickly wooded all round. An old canoe was found 
very much decayed and broken, and the remains of a hut on the beach. 
