ent you."

Our interpreter tried to explain that our object was simply to trade
honestly; that if they had any cocoanut oil, we would give them a fair
price for it.

"We will not trust you," was the answer. "Go away! Go away!"

As we saw several of the people clothed in shirts, and some even in
trousers, we had no doubt that a missionary was among them, though we
could not distinguish him from the rest. It was, however, evident that
they had been visited by a kidnapping vessel, and some of their people,
probably Christians, had been carried off into slavery. Finding,
notwithstanding all our protestations that we were honest traders, that
the natives would not allow us to land, Charlie and I agreed that it
would be folly to attempt doing so, and therefore returned to the
vessel.

Soon after this we came off another island totally different to any we
had before visited, being formed of corals that had been uplifted to the
height of upwards of two hundred feet, and surrounded by cliffs worn
into caverns. As no natives appeared, Harry did not wish to lose time
by landing.

The islands of the Pacific present a great variety of forms, although
the larger number are either partly or entirely surrounded by coral
reefs. These reefs, however, vary in construction; some are called
encircling reefs, when they appear at a distance from the shore, and a
lagoon intervenes; others are called fringing reefs, which are joined to
the land, and extend out from it without any lagoon. Others are
denominated lagoon islands, when the reef itself, raised above the
surface of the ocean, forms the land generally in a circular shape, and
surrounds a lake or lagoon, which has sometimes a passage to the sea,
and at others is completely closed. Then there are atoll islands; these
rise within a large encircling reef, which is seldom perfect, having
passages here and there through it. Sometimes there are elevations on
the reef itself, forming islands; but frequently the reef is a wash with
the sea. Besides these, there are the great barrier reefs which extend
along the larger part of the eastern coast of Australia, part of New
Guinea, and New Caledonia. Some of these are several hundred miles in
extent. These countless reefs are all formed by the coral insect. The
difference of their appearance is owing to various causes: some by the
subsidence of the land; others by its elevation through volcanic agency.
The encircling reefs have be