his time I had cured a sufficiency of provisions, and I made no
objection, indeed I must confess that I was by no means easy in my own
mind at these supernatural appearances. We struck our tents, sent every
thing on board, rove the rigging, bent the sails, and prepared for our
departure. Soon after we repaired on board, I happened to cast my eyes
upon the lead line, which was hanging over from the main chains, and
observed that it lay in a bight; hauling up the slack, I found, to my
surprise, that instead of five fathoms water in which we had anchored,
we were in less than three.

At first it occurred to me that this was a floating island, like the one
I before described, and that it was gradually rising more to the
surface; but this idea did not satisfy me. Throwing the lead and line
in the boat, I pushed off, and sounded in several directions, and had
the mortification to find that in the passage which the ship had
entered, there was not sufficient water for her to go out again, even if
we were to have discharged the whole cargo. I soon discovered the cause
of this apparent mystery; for as I went further out on the reef, I found
that whole trees and solid masses of coral had sprung up to the water's
edge, in parts which I knew were several fathoms deep when we entered.
I had often heard that the islands in these seas were formed by corals,
but I had no idea of the rapidity with which they were extended.

Your highness must know that all the zoophyte, or animal plants, are
composed of small insects, who work in millions under the water, until
they rise to the top. Such was the case in the present instance, and
thus by the labours of the minutest of the creation, in the short space
of three weeks my ship was shut up so as to render escape hopeless.

I returned on board, and explained to the men the real cause of the
apparently supernatural effects of what we had witnessed. Satisfied
that my assertions were correct, they seemed to care little at being
obliged to remain on an island which afforded them the means of such
comfortable subsistence. As nothing could be done for the ship, we went
on shore again, and repitching the tents, waited quietly until we might
be taken off by some vessel who should chance to pass that way.

In a fortnight the ship was aground, and the island continued to
increase so rapidly, that in two months she was raised high and dry out
of the water, about half a mile from the beach. The v