370 HONOLULU. 
Island, in honour of that distinguished officer of our navy. It has no 
doubt been frequently taken for Sydney Island. Its northwest point 
lies in longitude 172° 20’ 52’ W., and latitude 4° 29’ 48” S. To our 
great surprise, we found on this island eleven Kanakas from Tahiti, 
with a Frenchman who had been left there some five months before, 
to catch turtles, of which they had succeeded in taking seventy-eight. 
The Frenchman was unwell and we did not see him, but three of the 
Kanakas came on board and remained a short time. They knew 
Sydney Island, which they told us lay about sixty miles to the east- 
ward, and also two small islands to the northward, but no others here- 
abouts. Sydney Island they said they had visited, and that it was like 
the one on which we had found them. Hull’s Island has a little fresh 
water and a few cocoa-nut trees upon it, but offers few inducements 
to visit it, even for the business of taking turtles. The value of those 
taken could scarcely cover the expenses incurred, which must have 
been beyond one thousand dollars, taking into consideration the time 
spent by the vessel going and returning. They informed us that their 
vessel had gone to Samoa for the purpose of trading, and that they 
had been expecting her for some time past. 
We now stood for Sydney Island, and ran in the darkness until the 
screaming of the birds around us, warned me that it was most prudent 
to heave-to, and await the morning light. 
The morning proved squally, no land was in sight, and the wind 
was strong from the eastward. No observations could be taken at 
noon, and soon after that hour land was discovered from the masthead, 
bearing northwest, which proved to be Hull’s Island, showing that we 
had been strongly affected by a southwesterly current. I now saw 
that to attempt to reach Sydney Island, with the wind as we then had 
it, would occasion much loss of time; I therefore determined, first to 
search for those islands said to lie to the northward. With the wind 
at east-by-south, we stood to the north, and at daylight saw an island 
twelve miles to the westward, which was Birnie’s Island. At ten 
o’clock we made another island, Enderbury’s, which our observations 
placed in latitude 3° 08’ S., longitude 171° 08’ 30’ W. 
On the latter island we spent the most of this day, making obser- 
vations for dip and intensity. As it was somewhat peculiar in ap- 
pearance, we made a particular survey of it. It is a coral island, 
with a dry lagoon. The usual shore coral reef, which is from thirty 
to one hundred and fifty feet wide, surrounds it, and extends a short 
distance from its points; its greatest height above the shore-reef, was 
found to be eighteen feet; it is almost entirely composed of large 
coral slabs, intermixed with sand: the slabs have the sonorous or 
