TONGATABOO. 5 



thermometer 71-75°. The weather by six in the morning had cleared, 

 and we had the wind light from the westward. The clouds were 

 seen flying rapidly from the northeast. 



On the 13th the wind still continued from the southward and west- 

 ward, but light clouds were still flying from east-northeast-by-east, 

 and the sea was rough and uncomfortable. We had passed over the 

 place assigned to the Rosetta Shoal, and I believe I may safely state 

 it does not exist in that place. 



On the 14th we made Sunday Island, the Raoul of D'Entrecas- 

 teaux. It is high and rugged, and had every appearance of being 

 volcanic : the rocks rise like basaltic columns. The island affords no 

 anchorage, and the wind being light, I was not able to get near 

 enough to send a boat to land and procure specimens : the sea, also, 

 was very rough. Sunday Island, according to our observations, lies 

 in latitude 29° 12' S., and longitude 178° 15' W., which agrees well 

 with its established position : it is said to be inhabited by a few white 

 men ; and some of the officers reported that they saw smoke. 



On the 15th, we fell in with the Tobacco-Plant, American whaler, 

 Swain, master, that left the United States about the same time we 

 did. She had not been very successful. A singular circumstance is 

 connected with this ship during her cruise. H. B. M. ship Herald, 

 Captain Nias, whom we met in Sydney, picked up, several months 

 since, off Java Head, four hundred miles from land, a whale-boat, with 

 six men, who reported to Captain Nias that they had left the ship 

 Tobacco-Plant, which had been burnt at sea. They were taken on 

 board the Herald, most kindly treated, and landed in New South 

 Wales. The crew of the Herald presented them with £100, and 

 Captain Nias allowed them to sell their boat; besides all this, they 

 were amply supplied with clothes. This report of the loss of the 

 ship seemed placed beyond contradiction, and to meet her after- 

 wards caused us great surprise. A day or two after we had lost 

 sight of the ship, a man whom I had taken on board as a distressed 

 seaman, confessed that he had deserted from her, and also informed 

 us that the six men had left the ship at sea in an open boat, in conse- 

 quence of the ill treatment they had received from the captain, and 

 the short allowance of provisions on board. The manner in which 

 they carried on their deception upon Captain Nias, his officers, and 

 crew, was remarkable, and shows how much commiseration all classes 

 of men feel for those in distress, and how unwilling they are to scru- 

 tinize a tale of sorrow, when they have the apparent evidence before 



VOL. III. 2 



