516 ' 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP, conspicuous. There are several sandy bays, in which green turtle are 
sometimes so numerous that they quite hide the colour of the shore. 
.June, The sea yields an abundance of fish ; the rocks and caverns are the re- 
sort of crayfish and other shellfish; and the shores are the refuge of 
snipes, plovers, and wild pigeons. At the upper part of the port 
there is a small basin, formed by coral reefs, conveniently adapted 
for heaving a ship down; and on the whole it is a most desirable place 
of resort i'or a whale-ship. By a board nailed against a tree, it ap- 
peared that the port had been entered in September, 1825, by an 
English ship named the Supply, which I believe to be the first authen- 
ticated visit made to the place. 
Taking possession of uninhabited islands is now a mere matter of 
form ; still I could not allow so fair an opportunity to escape, and de- 
clared them to be the property of the British government by nailing a 
sheet of copper to a tree, with the necessary particulars engraved upon 
it. As the harbour had no name, I called it Port Lloyd, out of regard 
to the late Bishop of Oxford. The island in which it is situated I named 
after Sir Eobei’t Peel, His Majesty’s Secretary of State for the Home 
Department. 
As we rowed on shore towards the basin, which, in consequence of 
there being ten fathoms water all over it, was named Ten Fathom 
Hole, we were surrounded by sharks so daring and voracious that 
they bit at the oars and the boat’s rudder, and though wounded 
with the boat-hook returned several times to the attack. At the 
upper end of Ten Fathom Hole there were a great many green turtle ; 
and the boat’s crew w'ere sent to turn some of them for our sea-stock. 
The sharks, to the number of forty at least, as soon as they observed 
these animals in confusion, rushed in amongst them, and, to the great 
danger of our people, endeavoured to seize them by the fins, several 
of which we noticed to have been bitten off. ’I’he turtle weighed from 
three to four hundred-w'eight each, and w^ere so inactive that, had 
there been a sufficient number of men, the whole shoal might have 
been turned. 
Wittrein and his companion, the men whom w^e found upon the 
island, w ere living on the south side of the harbour, in a house built from 
