e they marked on your chart? They are on mine, but not even
named--just dots."

"Neither are they on my big sheet chart--and I have no other of this
part of the Western Pacific."

"Well then, here's my idea. I see from aloft that there is a good-sized
blue water lagoon there, and as likely as not there may be pearl-shell
in it. Anyway, it's worth seeing into, and so if Drake and yourself like
to take our boat and half a dozen men, you might have a look in there.
I can't see any houses, but at the same time, be careful. You can run
in with the cutter pretty close, and then go ashore in the boat. You are
bound to find a passage into the lagoon somewhere or other. I'll send
Tim Rotumah and George" (two of our native crew who were good divers)
"with you in the boat; they'll soon let you know if there is any shell
in the lagoon. If there is, light a fire, and make a smoke, and I'll
anchor the brigantine and come after you."

I was delighted with this, and at once returned on board, while Yorke
went off to the cutter to give his crew their instructions. In ten or
fifteen minutes the whaleboat was over the side awaiting me, manned by
six of our native crew, all of whom were armed with Snider carbines and
revolvers. Pushing off from the _Fray Bentos_, we went alongside the
_Francesco_ to pick up Yorke, who was waiting for the boat. As the wind
had now fallen very light, he suggested to me to make a start at once,
leaving the cutter in charge of Napoleon, with orders to anchor if it
fell calm, and he was on easy soundings.

The morning was deliciously bright, clear, and, for those latitudes at
that season of the year, very cool. As the boat skimmed over the placid
surface of the ocean, "schools" of bright silvery gar-fish and countless
thousands of small flying squid sprang into the air and fell with a
simultaneous splash into the water on each side and ahead of us. Then
"George," a merry-faced, broad-chested native of Anaa, in the Paumotu
Islands, after an inquiring glance at me, broke out into a bastard
Samoan-Tokelauan canoe song, with a swinging chorus, altering and
improvising as he sang, showing his white teeth, as every now and then
he smiled at Yorke and myself when making some humorous play upon
the words of the original song, praising the former for his skill and
bravery, and his killing of the man-eating savages of New Hanover, his
great strength and stature, and his kindly heart--"a heart which groweth
from his l