of the officers appointed for the
service!

[Illustration: Tatakotoroa or Clarke Island]

At 1.30 p.m. land was sighted from the mast-head, and at two o'clock I
saw from the deck what looked like plumes of dark ostrich feathers
rising from the sea. This was the island of Tatakotoroa--also known as
Narcissus, or Clarke Island--to the eastward of the Paumotu or Low
Archipelago of the South Seas. The sailing directions describe the
inhabitants as 'hostile,' and Sir Edward Belcher mentions that some of
them tried to cut off the boats sent from a man-of-war for water. We
were therefore afraid to attempt a landing, but sailed as near as we
could to the shore, which, surrounded by a rampart of snow-white
coral, and clothed almost to the water's edge with feathery palms,
cocoa-nut trees, and luxuriant vegetation of various kinds, looked
very tempting. A few canoes were drawn up on the beach near a large
hut, out of which three or four natives came, and, having looked at us
for some time, ran off into the woods. Blue smoke could be seen
curling up from several points of the forest, no doubt indicating the
presence of more natives, whose dwellings were concealed by the trees.

[Illustration: Going up the Mast in a Chair.]

[Illustration: Children looking up]

After lunch, Tom had me hoisted up to the foretopmast-head in a
'boatswain's chair,' which is simply a small plank, suspended by ropes
at the four corners, and used by the men to sit on when they scrape
the masts. I was very carefully secured with a rope tied round my
petticoats, and, knocking against the various ropes on my way, was
then gently hoisted up to what seemed at first a giddy height; but
when once I got accustomed to the smallness of the seat, the airiness
of my perch, and the increased roll of the vessel, I found my position
by no means an unpleasant one. Tom climbed up the rigging and joined
me shortly afterwards. From our elevated post we could see plainly the
formation of the island, and the lagoon in the centre, encircled by a
band of coral, in some places white, bare, and narrow, in others wide
and covered with palm-trees and rich vegetation; it was moreover
possible to understand better the theory of the formation of these
coral islands. I was so happy up aloft that I did not care to descend;
and it was almost as interesting to observe what a strange and
disproportioned appearance everything and everybody on board the yacht
presented from my novel po