other small islands
lying to the north, mentioned by La Perouse, I gave it the name of
Fisher's Island. It rises almost perpendicularly from the sea to a
considerable height, and is overgrown with thick wood.

On the following day we sailed with a brisk wind to the island of
Olajava, for the purpose of surveying the coast. A number of canoes put
off from the land, but could not overtake the ship; and I would not lie
to, on account of the hinderance it occasioned to our work. In the
afternoon we found ourselves near the little island lying off the
north-west point of Olajava, called by La Perouse the Flat Island. A
hill situated in its centre has, in fact, a flat surface, which La
Perouse, at a distance of thirty miles, mistook for the whole island,
because the low land which surrounds it was not within the compass of
his horizon.

For the same reason he could not observe that the eastern part of this
island is connected with the western coast of Olajava by two reefs
forming a basin, in the middle of which is a small rock. If these be
indeed coral reefs, which they certainly resemble, they are the only
ones I have remarked in the Navigators' Islands.

The Flat Island, which, for the reason above mentioned, occupies a much
larger space on our map than on that of La Perouse, is entirely
overgrown with wood, and has a very pleasant appearance. At a little
distance from this, to the north-west, another little island, which does
not appear to have been observed by that Voyager, rises perpendicularly
from the sea. Its sloping back is crested with a row of cocoa-trees so
regularly arranged, that it is difficult to conceive them planted by the
unassisted hand of Nature; viewed laterally from a short distance, they
present the form of a cock's-comb, on which account I gave the island
this name, to distinguish it from the rest. On its western side a high
conical rock is covered from top to bottom with a variety of plants,
evincing the prolific powers of Nature in these regions, where
vegetation is thus luxuriantly fastened on the most unfavourable soils.

North-west of this rock lies a third small island, exceeding both the
others in elevation: its sides fall precipitously to the sea, and the
upper surface describes a horizontal line thickly clothed with beautiful
trees. As its circumference is only three miles and a half, it can
hardly be the same that La Perouse has called Calinasseh. Probably he
did not observe this island