Green Dots of the Empire: 'The 
Ellice Group. 
D OTS only. And if the ship that carries 
you is running past them in the night, 
with the steady force of the south-east trades 
filling her canvas, you would never know that 
land lay within a few miles, save for the flashing 
of lights along the low sandy beaches or, may¬ 
hap, the dulled roar of the beating surf thrashing 
the reef on the windward side of the island. 
This, of course, implies that when ships pass in 
the night they do so on the lee-side. It is not 
a safe thing for even a daring trading schooner 
to have a long, long stretch of low-lying reef- 
encircled islets for a lee ; for sometimes Matagi 
toe lau (as the brown-skinned people call the 
trade wind) is apt, a few hours before dawn, 
to lull itself to slumber for a space, till the sun, 
bursting from the ocean, wakes it to life again. 
14 
