114 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF 



with a few low bushes, but it has no cocoa-nut or pandanus trees, 

 and affords nothing but the pearl-oyster and turtles, in the season. 

 The whole island is about thirty-two miles in circumference. Its 

 greatest length, north and south, is ten miles, and the same between 

 its east and west point. There are two entrances in the lagoon : one 

 about the middle of the north side, the other on the east side. The 

 island has no inhabitants, and is incapable of supporting any. From 

 the description in Mr. Dowsett's journal, there is no doubt that this 

 was the place where he and the boat's crew were either treacherously 

 murdered, or made captives, and carried to another island ; and from 

 the nature of the island, little doubt exists that the murderers were a 

 transient fishing party, from some of the adjacent islands. All the 

 facts that are known have been given previously. 



Korsakoff was in sight for two days ; but they were prevented from 

 having communication with it by the boisterous state of the weather. 

 On the afternoon of the 7th, an endeavour was made by a canoe to 

 reach the ship, but without success : the sea was too rough for the 

 boats to live, and the surf too great to permit a landing. Although a 

 few persons were seen upon it, yet nothing showed that it was per- 

 manently inhabited. The appearance of Korsakoff was the same as 

 that of the Pescadores, without any vegetable productions capable of 

 sustaining life. 



Korsakoff, though represented as one island on the charts, was 

 found to be two. The smaller one lies to the southward of the larger, 

 and is fourteen miles long by three wide. The larger island is about 

 twenty-six miles long, trending northeast and southwest. It has an 

 entrance into its lagoon on the south side. 



Captain Hudson now came to the conclusion that his time would 

 not permit hirn to proceed any further to the westward ; indeed, the 

 time appointed in his instructions to be at the Columbia river had 

 already passed, and he was now distant from it upwards of four 

 thousand miles, and would require some sixty or seventy days, in all 

 probability, to reach the Northwest Coast. 



This caused the abandonment of his visit to Strong's and Ascension 

 Islands, two points I was in hopes would have been reached, not only 

 for the information to be derived from a visit, but I was desirous of 

 having a full knowledge of those islands. I also wished to break up 

 what was deemed a nest of rogues, and to be the means of recovering 

 the property plundered in the several captures made by them, if any 

 of it remained. 



