PHATAS SHOAI 
57 
I 
with vegetation), like Eobinsoii Crusoe, I lighted a 
fire, and made a snug tent-house out of the sail of 
the jolly-boat, choosing for my bivouac a little 
sheltered glen, with bushes of Scaviola on one side, 
and a thicket of stunted Tournefortia on the other. 
Having appointed one boy as cook, I sent the other 
boys to collect firewood, and, if possible, to catch a 
turtle. Having arranged the house to my satisfac- 
tion, I took a walk round my island. Fringing it 
near the sea I observed a carpet of yellowish-green 
creeping grass, the fiowers with large white anthers, 
and bearing a delicate feathery stigma ; and this 
green circular border was gemmed all over with in- 
numerable blossoms of a pink-and- white convolvulus. 
At the first glance nothing is visible inland but 
dense, rounded masses of glaucous-green shrubs, 
mostly Scaviola, with here and there traces of 
Toui'nefortia. As I advanced, however, I saw open 
spaces with heaps of finely-powdered coral sand, 
white as the driven snow. The bones of ship- 
wrecked men, mingled with those of the turtle on 
which they had fed, were scattered all around. 
