in the bushes and the. beautiful snow white love birds rested in pairs 
on tiny ledges on the huge blaok Cliffs. Albatrosses, found elsewhere 
» 
near the sea here nested on a flat 850 feet above the waves. 
After six days the Manager returned and landed a party who 
had been working on Keeker, while we others were reimbarked without 
incident except that a huge blind roller washed me off the landing rook 
when I was trying to talk with Commander King, so that I swam out to the 
surf boat to finish our conversation. 
An island of mystery. 
/ 
On November 4, 1786 the Frenchman La Ferouse sighted a rough 
barren rook, west of the main Hawaiian group, which he named Weaker 
Island in honor of the Swiss banker Jules Seeker, who at the time was 
busy in France with a futile attempt to stabilize the uncertain exchequer 
of an uneasy government. Though the French Exploring Expedition remained 
in the vioinity for a brief time no attempt was made to land and the 
Journal of La Porouse oonraents mainly on the barrenness of the plaice, 
i’ho Island was visited on May 27, 1894, by Captain J. W. King, father 
of Lieut.-Commander King, who took possession of Seoker for the Hawaiian 
government, and lef^a oopper oylinder recording this fact. This cylinder 
was found by a member of our party and returned to Honolulu for preservation 
for its historical value. 
