5 
As there is no water, so neither are any trees to he seen on this 
island. We found, however, several large trunks of trees on the beach, 
which, no doubt, had been thrown up by the sea. The largest of these 
trunks, at the root end, measured twenty-one feet in circumference. They 
were like the red-wood tree, that grows on the banks of the river Columbia 
in America. 1 am at a loss what conclusion to draw from the appearance 
of these trunks of trees in so remote a place. If they could not have 
been drifted by the sea from America, on account of the great distance, it 
follows that they must have come from some nearer place. On the Sandwich 
Islands trees of this kind do not grow; and Japan, like America, is very 
remote. It is not therefore improbable, that, on the same line on which 
lie the Sandwich Islands, Necker Island, and the island now found, there are 
lands more to the north-west, which will owe their discovery to some future 
navigator: perhaps likewise on the same line lies the island, said by some 
writers to have been formerly discovered by the Spaniards in the latitude 
of 35° 30* North, and the longitude of I 7 O 0 East. 
1 also found on the beach a small caillabash, which had a round hole cut 
on one side of it. This could not have been drifted from a great distance, 
as it was fresh and in good preservation. I cannot help regarding it as 
a great misfortune that the ship grounded, as I should otherwise certainly 
not have quitted the environs of this island till I had explored them 
thoroughly; but in her present damaged state, though the hope of discovery 
was dear to my heart, I dared not tempt it. 
I shall insert here a plan of the island, that by comparing it with 
the description 1 have given of our situation, the reader may judge how 
great was our peril, and how miraculous our escape. When 1 reflect, that 
the ship might have grounded in many a worse place on this bank, and that 
