332 
A VOYAGE TO 
1S03. 
October. 
[East Coast. 
some shrubs, and a soil to which the birds are every day making an 
increase. 
Bird Islet being to windward of, and only seven miles distant 
from our bank, it was frequently visited by the gentlemen during 
my absence. Besides sea birds of the species already mentioned, 
they procured many thousand eggs ; and also four turtle, of which 
one weighed 4 59 pounds, and contained so many eggs, that lieutenant 
Fowler’s journal' says no less than 1940, large and small, were 
counted. These supplies, with shell fish gathered from the reef, 
and fish, were a great resource, and admitted of a saving in the salt 
provisions ; as the occasional rains, from which several casks were 
filled, did of their fresh water. the trepang was found on Wreck 
Reef, and soup was attempted to be made of it ; but whether our 
cooks had not the method of stewing it down, or that the trepang is 
suited only to the vitiated taste of the Chinese, nothing good was 
produced 
Oats, maize, and pumpkin seeds were planted upon Wreck- 
Reef Bank, as also upon Bird Islet ; and the young plants had come 
up, and were in a tolerably flourishing state ; some of these may 
possibly succeed upon the islet, but upon the bank it is scarcely to 
be hoped. The cocoa nut is capable of resisting the light sprays of 
the sea which frequently pass over these banks, and it is to be re- 
gretted that we had none to plant upon them. A cluster of these 
majestic and useful palms would have been an excellent beacon to 
warn mariners of their danger; and in the case where darkness 
might render them unavailing in this respect, their fruit would at 
least afford some salutary nourishment to the shipwrecked seamen. 
1 he navigator who should distribute ten thousand cocoa nuts amongst 
the numerous sand banks of the Great Ocean and Indian Sea, would 
be entitled to the gratitude of all maritime nations, and of every 
friend to humanity. I may be thought to attribute too much im- 
portance to this object in saying, that such a distribution ought to be 
a leading article in the instructions for any succeeding voyage of 
