l he could learn, however, was that a dozen or
more vessels had sailed, fully armed, with stores for a long cruise, and
a larger quantity of rice and other provisions than could be required by
their crews. Where they had gone no one could tell. Probably the
islands they were to attack were left to the choice of their commanders.

On putting to sea, the Ajax steered to the westward. As the frigate
approached the numerous groups of islands which lay in her course, it
became necessary to keep a very bright look-out, by day as well as by
night. The first group consisted of low coral islands, which rise but a
few feet above the water.

Ben was anxious to make himself useful as before, and was continually at
the masthead, when his watch was over, looking out for land. One day,
when he was as usual aloft, turning his eyes round in every direction,
he saw right ahead what seemed to be a grove of trees rising directly
out of the water. He reported what he saw. Sail was immediately
shortened, and the lead hove, and, as the ship sailed on, the lead was
again frequently hove.

"It is the Minerva coral island," Ben heard the captain observe to Mr
Charlton, after he and the master had been looking over the chart.

As the ship rose and fell with the swell of the ocean, the trees were
now seen and now again lost sight of alternately for some time; this had
a very curious effect. As the frigate drew near, a white sandy beach
was seen, and, higher up, a belt of land of a light clay colour, on
which grew a few shrubs not more than fifteen feet high, above which
towered the pandanus, cocoa-nut, and palms. The whole island was about
ten miles long, and a mile and a half wide, the centre part being
occupied by a lagoon, or lake, of smooth deeply blue water, thus leaving
a belt of land not more than six hundred feet across. This lagoon had
no opening or entrance to it, but Ben heard that the lagoons of most of
the coral islands have a communication with the sea, so that boats and
canoes can enter. Outside the island, at some little distance, rose a
second or outer reef, over which the sea flowed at high water. This
served in heavy gales, when the waves rolled in furious to break their
force, and to protect the shore over which they might otherwise have
swept, carrying away the trees and shrubs which made it a fit habitation
for man.

Mr Martin gave Ben and Tom an account of the way these coral islands
are formed. "Coral, you