^8 PILOT'S ISLAND. 
suddenly shoaling to ten; but as they aftemards continued regular 
at fourteen till we anchored, I conceived there was some error. The 
night was immoderately sultry. 
On the 17th we did not weigh till six, as there was not a breath 
of air till the sea breeze set in, which has hitherto invariably been- 
the case about nine. We passed the island looked for by the pilot ; 
he called it Howakel. It is lofty, rugged, and about nine miles in 
length. Off the north of it are three low sandy islands. The coast 
here again began to approach them, from which at one time it had 
apparently been three leagues distant. In the evening we saw 
four small islands to the eastward, distant five leagues : the pilot 
called them Miseras ; of which the curious name of the Great and 
Little Miseries, as laid down in Mr. Apres de Menonville's chart 
is probably a corruption. We came to anchor about six o'clock 
between the main and an island, which, from the pilot's consi- 
dering it as an important mark, we called Pilot's Island. The sky 
to the N. W. was cloudy, and the sun set behind a dense body of 
clouds. This the pilot said denoted a S.W. wind ; and he was right. 
It blew rather fresh till ten o'clock, when it came round to the E. of 
N. and was exremely sultry. 
On the 18th we were not under sail till six, when, for the first time, 
we kept within the islands. As the channel was narrow, and the 
wind against us, our tacks were but short. The channel is not above 
a mile wide, but the water is ten fathom and upwards. Pilot's Island 
is small and woody, has two spits of sand extending parallel to the 
shore for a considerable distance, one at each end ; it is distant from 
the main three miles, and every danger is visible. The sea breeze 
changed the north-west monsoon a little in our favour, so that for 
