150 
VOYAGE TO THE 
chap. After examining the vicinity of Clermont Tonnere for the 
island of the Minerva, and seeing no other land, we steered for Serle 
which was discovered at daylight on the 21st January, bearing 
west. Its first appearance was that of a low strip of land with a 
hillock at each extremity, but these, on a nearer approach, proved to 
be clumps of large trees. Admiral Krusenstern, in his valuable Memoir 
on the South Pacific* observes, that Serle Island is higher than any 
other island of the low archipelago ; that it has two hills at its ex- 
tremities, and a third near its centre ; and on this account recom- 
mends it as a place of reconnoissance for ships entering the archipelago. 
In this, however, he has been misled by some navigator who mistook 
the trees for hills, and over-estimated the height of them, as the tallest 
does not exceed fifty feet. 
Some columns of smoke rising from the island showed that it was 
inhabited, and on rounding the N. W. extreme we perceived several 
men and women running along the beach, dragging after them long 
poles or spears. The population altogether cannot exceed a hundred. 
The men were entirely naked, but the women had the usual covering. 
They were of the same dark swarthy colour with the natives of Cler- 
mont Tonnere, with the hair tied in a similar knot on the top of the 
head, and like them they were deficient in tattooing and ornaments. 
Their weapons were poles about twenty feet in length, similar to those 
of the Friendly Islanders, and heavy clubs. IVe could not perceive any 
canoes. 
This island is seven miles and a half in length in a N. W. direc- 
tion, and two and a quarter miles in width in its broadest part. It 
is of coral formation, and very similar to that just described ; its 
windward side is the most perfect: the southern side of the chain, how- 
ever, differs in being wider, and having a barren flat full an eighth of a 
mile outside the trees. On this account it is necessary for a ship to be 
cautious in approaching it during the night, as it is so low that the 
breakers would be the first warning of the danger of her situation. The 
lagoon is very narrow, and apparently shallow, with several islands in 
* Page 276, 4to. edition. 
