the frigate from entering the harbour of Roankiddi, and there was no reason to hope for any speedy change, our original intention of spending several days there was abandoned, and the same evening we resumed our course for Australia.
As our brief stay of barely five hours on the island of Puynipet necessarily led to our observations and remarks being of the most superficial nature, whereas the island has of late years begun to acquire an unusual importance both in a maritime and a commercial sense, we must content ourselves with referring the reader for a more detailed account to Captain Cheyne's admirable and comprehensive account of the island.
"The Ant Islands (called also Fraser's Islands) lie in a S.W. direction from the harbour of Roankiddi, from which they are about 12 nautical miles distant.
"They consist of a group of low coral islets covered with cocoa-palms and bread-fruit trees, and surrounded by a coral reef, which makes a lagoon in the centre. Between the two longer islands at the east end of the group there is a channel. The entire group from N.W. to S.E. measures seven miles in width, is only inhabited from May to September, during the period when the cuttle-fish are caught, and is the property of the chief of the Roankiddi tribe. However the islands are frequented at all seasons by the natives of Puynipet, who procure here cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit. The most north-easterly point lies in 6° 42′ N., 158° 3′ E.
"Next the Ant Island is Pakeen, the sole adjoining island. It lies about 22 miles W. of Tschokoits, its central point lying in 7° 10′ N. and 157° 43′ E. It consists of five small coral islets, completely inclosed in a reef, which forms an inaccessible lagoon in the interior.
"The entire group is about five miles in length from west to east, and from north to south three miles in width. The islands are very low, but produce an enormous quantity of cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit, while the lagoon abounds with excellent fish. The westernmost island is inhabited by about thirty persons in all, mainly of the family and attendants of the Chief of Puynipet, who claims proprietorship of the whole group. This scanty population is chiefly engaged in the construction of mats and canoe-sails made of the leaves of the pandanus. In fine weather the denizens of Pakeen are fond of running over to Puynipet to exchange their own products for tobacco and other foreign articles.
"What are marked on the charts as Bottomless Group and St. Augustine's Islands have no existence. Pakeen and Ant's Islands are the same groups adjoining each other to the westward of Puynipet."
Our progress now began to be very slow, and the equatorial zones with their vexatious calms, and variable light breezes alternating with violent squalls, became a sore trial for our patience. An unusual and most oppressive heat, from which we vainly sought shelter; tropical rains, which often fell in unbroken torrents for hours at a time, and obscured the daylight
with clouds almost as suddenly at times as though there were an eclipse; a long heavy swell, which knocked the good ship about with an unceasing and most disagreeable motion, without nevertheless our being able to advance one single mile in the twenty-four hours; the depressing monotonous flapping and filling of the sails, which, with the rolling and pitching of the ship, now bellied out and then fell idly back against the masts and yards, straining the rigging and cordage, and keeping a constant indescribable but most irritating noise—such is a faint sketch of the miseries of voyagers caught by an equatorial calm in a sailing vessel! How one longs for a good hearty storm, if only to drive us out of this truly dismal plight! How in the monotony of such an existence does a quite insignificant circumstance at once assume the proportions of an important event! The most trifling incident on board, the most imperceptible object which becomes visible in either atmosphere or water, attracts universal attention, and gives rise to discussions by the hour. One day some one perceived a dark object floating in the distance; when the frigate got near this proved to be the trunk of a tree, almost 100 feet long, and though at best we could only have used it as firewood, a boat was forthwith manned and dispatched to tow it alongside. A few black Albatrosses suffered themselves to be hauled contentedly along upon the floating trunk, somewhat astonishing us by their being found so near the equator. Only by dint of considerable exertion was the