ple. Away, away from home, by half
the circumference of the globe! One of the most frequent and unpleasant
of my experiences since I entered the China Sea, is an _oppressive_
sense of _great_ distance from home, and the utter strangeness of
everything around me, almost as though I had entered another planet.

_Monday, December 7th_.--The commander of the island, M. Bizot, visited
me to-day. He is an agreeable and intelligent young man of twenty-four
or five years of age, and appeared very friendly and expressed sympathy
for our cause. His position is a flattering one for a man of his age and
rank, and he seems to have entered upon his duties with pride and zeal.
He brought me a chart of the island, surveyed last year. The French have
been in possession two years and a half. He spoke of my having hoisted
the English flag upon first anchoring, and seemed surprised that we had
not heard of the possession of the island by the French, which, he said,
had been notified to all the Powers. I pleasantly told him that I had
had some notion of taking possession of it myself, but that I had found
the French ahead of me. He brought down for me the welcome present of a
_pig_ and some little fruit, and told me he had a _potato patch_ on
shore, which he would share with me. Fresh provisions of all kinds are
so scarce here that I fear my generous friend has been robbing himself.
He told me that he had one hundred and forty _forcats_--slave-prisoners
--at the village, whom he meant to put to good use in constructing store
and dwelling-houses, &c. The hunters brought on board to-day an East India
bat, or vampire, measuring two feet ten inches from tip to tip of wing. Its
head resembled that of a dog or wolf more than any other animal, its teeth
being very sharp and strong. Among the curiosities of the island is a locust,
that has a whistle almost as loud as that of a railroad.

_Tuesday, Dec. 8th_.--The Commander of the Junk came on board, and
brought me a couple of fowls. The apes here are very large, and quite
fierce. They will not run from you, but come around you, and grin and
chatter at you. An officer shot one, and he died like a human being,
throwing his hands over his wound and uttering piercing cries! This
monkey was afterwards buried in the sand by his comrades, though the
interment was not quite complete when the operators were interrupted.
This is the reason why nobody ever sees a dead monkey, any more, as the
Singhalese prove