cies of food
most nutritious and agreeable, and probably the best adapted to our
half-famished condition.

Hunger and thirst being appeased, our next care was to make some
arrangement for passing the night more comfortably than could be done in
the boat. Selecting a clear space in the centre of the group of young
cocoa-nuts, we proceeded to make a rude tent, by fixing two of the oars
upright in the ground,--tying the mast across their tops and throwing
the sail over it, the ends being then fastened to the ground at a
convenient distance on each side.

Finding that the bare ground would make a rather hard couch, though far
less so than we had lately been accustomed to, Morton proposed that we
should bring a load of leaves from the neighbouring shore to spread upon
it. He and I accordingly rowed over to the mainland, and collected in
the grove near the beech, a boatload of the clean dry foliage of the
pandanus and hibiscus, which made excellent elastic beds. Johnny
watched our departure as though he considered this an exceedingly rash
and adventurous enterprise, and he seemed greatly relieved at our safe
return. It was now past midnight, and after hauling the boat well up on
the shore, we laid down side by side and were very soon asleep.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

THE EXPLORING EXPEDITION.

EIULO--PEARL-SHELL BEACH--A WARLIKE COLONY--AN INVASION REPELLED.

"They linger there while weeks and months go by,
And hold their hope, tho' weeks and months are past;
And still at morning round the farthest sky,
And still at eve, their eager glance is cast,
If there they may behold the far-off mast
Arise, for which they have not ceased to pray."

For a number of days we remained upon the islet where we had first
landed, seldom visiting even the adjacent shore. During this time we
subsisted upon cocoa-nuts and a small species of shell-fish, resembling
mussels, which we obtained in abundance from the ledges of the
neighbouring reef, and which the little native told us, were used as a
common article of food among his own people. We had reason to feel
grateful that, while we were as feeble and incapable of exertion as we
found ourselves for some days, food could be so readily procured. It
was also fortunate that during this period the weather continued
remarkably fine and mild, with no perceptible variations of temperature;
for I have little doubt that in the reduced and exhausted condition in
which we then were