found the latter to be a continuation of the bank on
which Captain King had five fathoms, Point Pearce bearing North 22
degrees East 5 miles; and in order to record his visit we named it, after
his vessel, Mermaid Bank.

VISIT THE SHORE FOR OBSERVATIONS.

December 7.

I left the ship in the morning to make some observations at Point Pearce
for the errors of the chronometers. I was accompanied to the shore by Mr.
Bynoe, who was going on a shooting excursion. It being high-water, I was
obliged to select a spot near the cliffs forming the point, for carrying
out my intention. That selected was about 60 yards from the wood-crowned
cliff which rose behind; thinking such an intervening distance would
secure me from the spear of the treacherous native. This caution rather
resulted from what had before occurred at Escape Cliffs, where Messrs.
Fitzmaurice and Keys so narrowly escaped, than from any idea that natives
might be lurking about. Indeed, Mr. Bynoe had been shooting all over the
ground yesterday, and had neither seen nor heard anything to indicate
their existence in this neighbourhood; though doubtless, from what
followed, they had been very busily watching him all the time, and were
probably only deterred from making an attack, by the alarm with which his
destructive gun, dealing death to the birds, must have filled them.
Requiring equal altitudes, I was compelled to revisit the spot in the
afternoon for the corresponding observations. The boat in which Mr. Bynoe
returned to the ship, was to carry me on shore. We met at the gangway,
and in answer to my inquiry, he informed me that he had seen no traces of
the natives. He had shot a new and very beautiful bird of the finch
tribe, in which the brilliant colours of verdigris green, lilac purple,
and bright yellow, were admirably blended.* The time was short; half an
hour would have sufficed for the observations, and we should have left
the coast. As it was now low-water, and I had to traverse a coral reef
half a mile in width, I resolved to lighten myself of my gun, which I had
taken with me in the morning, that I might with greater safety carry the
chronometer. On landing I directed Mr. Tarrant and one of the boat's crew
to follow with the rest of the instruments. The walking was very bad, the
reef being strewed with coral fragments, and interspersed with large
pools. With my mind fully occupied by all we had seen of late, I hurried
on without waiting, and reached the