uthward look any more inviting, for it consisted
of cliffs ranging from two hundred to five or six hundred feet high,
rising almost vertically from the water. We therefore pushed on, all
the more impelled thereto because the channel now ran almost directly to
windward and we were therefore obliged to beat up through it; moreover,
the afternoon was progressing, and I wanted, if possible, to find some
spot where we could pass the night in comfort.

At a point some eight miles farther on the channel again forked, one
branch heading away to the north-east while the other trended off in a
south-easterly direction. As we reached this point the wind suddenly
freshened, and there was a salt tang in it quite distinctive from the
odour of earth and vegetation that we had now been breathing for several
hours; also there came to our ears, subdued by distance, the low,
continuous booming thunder of surf, from which I surmised--correctly as
it subsequently proved--that we were nearing the eastern extremity of
the group.

Heading the boat into the south-eastern channel, with the long range of
vertical rocky cliffs still stretching away on our starboard bow, we
presently came abreast of an island measuring some six miles from east
to west, by about seven miles from north to south, roughly triangular in
plan, the surface sloping upward on all sides from the water's edge to a
peak which I estimated to be about two thousand feet high. Standing
close inshore, to get as near a view as possible of this island, we
found its appearance most delectable. Like much of what we had already
seen, the entire island was forest-clad, but the country was much more
park-like in character; the trees grew less thickly together; they were
not matted together by an impenetrable jungle of undergrowth, although
many of them were almost smothered in what appeared to be innumerable
varieties of orchids, and the soil was clothed with what looked like
short, grey-green grass down to the inner edge of the narrow beach,
which was lined with cocoa-nut palms. Taken altogether, the place wore
so exceedingly attractive an appearance that, finding ourselves rather
unexpectedly standing into a nice, snug little bay, I headed straightway
for the beach, determined to push our explorations no farther for that
day.

Securely mooring the boat as before, we landed and, fully armed, made
our way inland over the southern shoulder of the hill, observing, as we
went, that a