There were no traces of inhabitants having ever been here, if we except a small piece of a canoe that was found upon the beach, which, probably, may have drifted from some other island. But, what is pretty extraordinary, we saw several small brown rats on this spot, a circumstance, perhaps, difficult to account for, unless we allow that they were imported in the canoe of which we saw the remains.
After the boats were laden I returned on board, leaving Mr Gore, with a party, to pass the night on shore, in order to be ready to go to work early the next morning.
That day, being the 15th, was accordingly spent as the preceding one had been, in collecting and bringing on board food for the cattle, consisting chiefly of palm-cabbage, young cocoa-nut trees, and the tender branches of the wharra tree. Having got a sufficient supply of these by sun-set, I ordered every body on board. But having little or no wind, I determined to wait, and to employ the next day by endeavouring to get some cocoa-nuts for our people from the next island to leeward, where we could observe that those trees were in much greater abundance than upon that where we had already landed, and where only the wants of our cattle had been relieved.
With this view I kept standing off and on all night, and in the morning, between eight and nine o'clock, I went with the boats to the W. side of the island, and landed with little difficulty. I immediately set the people with me to work to gather cocoa-nuts, which we found in great abundance. But to get them to our boats was a tedious operation, for we were obliged to carry them at least half a mile over the reef up to the middle in water. Omai, who was with me, caught, with a scoop net, in a very short time, as much fish as served the whole party on shore for dinner, besides sending some to both ships. Here were also great abundance of birds, particularly men-of-war and tropic birds, so that we fared sumptuously. And it is but doing justice to Omai to say, that in these excursions to the uninhabited islands he was of the greatest use; for he not only caught the fish, but dressed these, and the birds we killed, in an oven with heated stones, after the fashion of his country, with a dexterity and good-humour that did him great credit. The boats made two trips before night, well laden: With the last I returned on board, leaving Mr Williamson, my third lieutenant, with a party of men, to prepare another lading for the boats, which I proposed to send next morning.
I accordingly dispatched them at seven o'clock; and they returned laden by noon. No time was lost in sending them back for another cargo; and they carried orders for every body to be on board by sunset. This being complied with, we hoisted in the boats and made sail to the westward, with a light air of wind from the N.
We found this islet near a half larger than the other, and almost entirely covered with cocoa-palms, the greatest part of which abounded with excellent nuts, having often both old and young on the same tree. They were, indeed, too thick in many places to grow with freedom. The other productions were, in general, the same as at the other islet. Two pieces of board, one of which was rudely carved, with an elliptical paddle, were found on the beach. Probably these had belonged to the same canoe, the remains of which were seen on the other beach, as the two islets are not above half a mile apart. A young turtle had also been lately thrown ashore here; as it was still full of maggots. There were fewer crabs than at the last place; but we found some scorpions, a few other insects, and a greater number of fish upon the reefs. Amongst these were some large eels, beautifully spotted, which, when followed, would raise themselves out of the water, and endeavour with an open mouth to bite their pursuers. The other sorts were chiefly parrot-fish, snappers, and a brown spotted rock-fish, about the size of a haddock, so tame, that instead of swimming away, it would remain fixed and gaze at us. Had we been in absolute want, a sufficient supply might have been had; for thousands of the clams, already mentioned, stuck upon the reef, some of which weighed two or three pounds. There were, besides, some other sorts of shell-fish, particularly the large periwinkle. When the tide flowed several sharks came in over the reef, some of which our people killed, but they rendered it rather dangerous to walk in the water at that time.
The party who were left on shore with Mr Williamson, were a good deal pestered (as Mr Gore's had been) with musquitoes in the night. Some of them, in their excursions, shot two curlews, exactly like those of England, and saw some plovers, or sand-pipers, upon the shore; but in the wood no other bird, besides one or two of the cuckoos that were seen at Wenooa-ette.
Upon the whole, we did not spend our time unprofitably at this last islet, for we got there about twelve hundred cocoa-nuts, which were equally divided amongst the whole crew, and were, doubtless, of great use to them, both on account of the juice and of the kernel. A ship, therefore, passing this way, if the weather be moderate, may expect to succeed as we did. But there is no water upon either of the islets where we landed. Were that article to be had, and a passage could be got into the lake, as we may call it, surrounded by the reef, where a ship could anchor, I should prefer this to any of the inhabited islands, if the only want were refreshment. For the quantity of fish that might be procured would be sufficient, and the people might roam about unmolested by the petulance of any inhabitants.
The nine or ten low islets, comprehended under the name of Palmerston's Island, may be reckoned the heads or summits of the reef of coral rock that connects them together, covered only with a thin coat of sand, yet clothed, as already observed, with trees and plants, most of which are of the same sorts that are found on the low grounds of the high islands of this ocean.
There are different opinions amongst ingenious theorists concerning the formation of such low islands as Palmerston's. Some will have it, that in remote times these little separate heads or islets were joined, and formed one continued and more elevated tract of land, which the sea, in the revolution of ages, has washed away, leaving only the higher grounds; which, in time also, will, according to this theory, share the same fate. Another conjecture is, that they have been thrown up by earthquakes, and are the effect of internal convulsions of the globe. A third opinion, and which appears to me as the most probable one, maintains, that they are formed from shoals or coral banks, and, of consequence, increasing. Without mentioning the several arguments made use of in support of each of these systems, I shall only describe such parts of Palmerston's Island as fell under my own observation when I landed upon it.