Accordingly, as soon as the meal was over, we shoved off, some instinct prompting me, at the last moment, to take one of our revolving rifles and a small supply of cartridges with me. We soon slid out of the cove, and shortly afterwards rounded the north-western extremity of the island.
This was the first trial of our sliding-gunter mainsail upon our singularly-constructed boat; and Bob and I were thrown into perfect raptures at the truly marvellous speed with which it propelled the craft along. The Water Lily was wonderfully fast; but in smooth water and light winds, her boat would have sailed round and round her.
We skimmed rapidly along the edge of the western reef, and when we had run about four miles to the southward, found a good wide break, which looked as though it led out to sea. I up with the helm at once, and away we darted almost dead before the wind, down through it.
It was rather a circumbendibus sort of affair, and somewhat narrow in places, though everywhere there was sufficient room to work the Lily in; and after a run of about half an hour, we shot out between two overhanging ledges, the extremities of which showed about six feet above water, and found ourselves rising and falling on the long swell of the open ocean.
So far, so good, and we now hove about to retrace our steps, I noticing, as we passed in between the two ledges I have mentioned, that the rock, instead of being of coral formation, appeared to be composed of a lava-like substance; and I then became confirmed in an impression, which had crossed my mind once or twice before, that this island was certainly of volcanic origin, and that the mountain had once been the crater of an active volcano.
And the conformation of the summit seemed also to suggest this, for it did not taper away to a cone, but appeared to form a flat tableland of some extent; this, however, might perhaps have proved on inspection to be hollow, the flat appearance of the top resulting merely from regularity in the height of the crater walls.
In about an hour after re-entering the passage through the reef, our boat grounded gently on the beach, on the western side of the island. I leaped ashore, and assisted Ella to land, desiring Bob, as I shoved the boat off into deep water again, to meet us in the bay which I expected he would find behind a low headland which lay about three miles to the southward of us.
Ella took possession of my arm now, quite as a matter of course, without waiting for me to offer its support, and together we sauntered leisurely along in the grateful shade of the trees and giant plants with which we were surrounded.
For the first half-hour or so, we had eyes for nothing but the varied beauties of nature which lay spread before us in such luxuriant prodigality.
The forms of the trees and plants were, for the most part, new to us, but all were beautiful; and the occasional glimpses of scenery which presented themselves through unexpected avenues, made glorious by the adornment of all these varied forms and colours in foliage and flowers, and enlivened by the presence of thousands of birds of brilliant plumage, darting through the air like living gems, seemed like an absolute realisation of fairy-land or Eden.