Feb.] ANOTHER DISCOVERY. 379 



m short, and not sweet:" " Go below instantly, my dear, or I shall be* 

 compelled to have you taken from my presence by force." From 

 that moment I saw her no more, nor was there a word spoken on 

 board, among thirty-four men, excepting by myself and the first 

 officer, until the Antarctic was safe, retreating obliquely from the 

 frothy and noisy rage of the boisterous enemy. Then we had time 

 to breathe. 



We stood off-shore until half-past three o'clock, when we hove- 

 to, with the starboard tacks on board. At half-past four, A. M., we 

 filled away, and stood in for the reef ; and at half-past five we were close 

 in with the east end of it, when we discovered land to the westward, 

 about eighteen miles from the outer breakers. There were also some 

 small low islands to be seen near the inner edge of the reef, along 

 which we continued to steer, finding it to extend in a circular direc- 

 tion, until we finally sailed nearly round it, and began to understand 

 its figure, nature, and character. This, however, had exhausted our 

 daylight ; we therefore stood off at a prudent distance, and hove-to for 

 the night. 



On the following morning we resumed our examination of this in- 

 teresting discovery ; for such it proved to be. It was a group of beau- 

 tiful islands, surrounded, enclosed, fenced in, completely locked up, and 

 defended by a wall of coral, from one-third of a mile to three miles in 

 width, and one hundred and fifty miles in circumference ; the depth of 

 water on it varying from two to eight feet. In circumnavigating this 

 singular submarine parapet, we counted more than seventy islands, 

 of different sizes, situated within its circle, the appearance of which 

 was truly paradisiacal and delightful. It was realizing, as far as the 

 eye could judge, all that poets have dreamed of " happy isles," fairy- 

 land, &c. The whole were clothed with the richest verdure, and 

 crowned with forests of cocoanut-trees, bread-fruit, oranges, plantain, 

 banana, &c. The mountains appeared to be wooded to their very 

 summits ; and every appearance, examined by good telescopes from 

 the mast-head, indicated fertility and plenty. Every island was teem- 

 ing with inhabitants, whose curiosity was evidently very strongly ex- 

 cited by the sudden apparition of our vessel, in the morning subse- 

 quent to the midnight incident which came so near leaving them nothing 

 to gaze upon but the Antarctic's broken timbers, and our own lifeless 

 bodies. Canoes of natives were seen darting from one island to an- 

 other, and the utmost alarm and confusion seemed to reign among 

 those tawny children of the reef. The water within the reef appeared 

 like a polished mirror, reflecting every object from its glassy surface. 

 The natives also appeared in considerable numbers on several little 

 islands at the inner edge of the reef, and in their canoes outside the 

 surf, which in some places broke twenty feet high. 



But I could not rest contented with merely viewing these happy 

 isles at a distance, shut out, as it were, by an envious wall im- 

 passable as adamant. We therefore commenced a search to find 

 some place of entrance, and for this purpose continued our examina- 

 tion of the reef; in doing which we discovered four passages leading 

 to the placid, tranquil, lake-like waters which slept within. These 



