extreme satisfaction of seeing the _Mercury_ sweep clear of the edge of
the reef into blue water, and to feel her once more rising and falling
upon the swell of the open ocean. Then I made my way down on deck and,
having given the officer of the watch the course, retired to the cabin
to enjoy a good breakfast, before lying down to recover some of my
arrears of rest.

At noon on the fifth day after this exceedingly awkward adventure, our
latitude, as computed from the meridian altitude of the sun, showed that
we had fairly cleared the Molucca Passage and had reached the waters,
wherein our search for the ideal island pictured by Wilde's vivid
imagination was to begin. I therefore gave orders for the ship to be
brought to the wind on the starboard tack, and we plunged into the vast
North Pacific Ocean, shortly afterward sighting the Tulur Islands on our
lee beam.

In the course of the next day we sighted and passed two groups of
islands within twenty miles of each other, standing in close enough to
each to enable us to form a pretty accurate idea of their character; but
they were altogether too small and insignificant to meet with Wilde's
approval, so we left them without even taking the trouble to land and
give them an overhaul.

On the following day, the ship still heading to the northward, we
sighted a couple of junks, about a mile apart, steering south. They
were made out from the forecastle-head, about three points on the lee
bow, at four bells of the forenoon watch; and the emigrants, who were
all on deck, manifested much interest in the quaint appearance of the
craft, as they approached us close-hauled. There was only a very
moderate breeze blowing--we were carrying all three of our royals--and
there was no sea to speak of, yet, despite these favourable conditions,
I must confess that I was not a little astonished to see how nimbly
those two unwieldy-looking craft moved over the water, and how close to
the wind they contrived to lie--this last, of course, being due to the
almost absolutely flat set of their mat sails. The weathermost of the
two looked as though she might cross our stern, at a distance of not
much more than a quarter of a mile. I got up the glass and had a look
at them when they were about two miles distant, but found nothing very
interesting about them, after I had noted their strangeness of model and
rig, and the quaint, decorative painting of their hulls, the bows of
each especially be