but the eastern bank is the most considerable, and most
frequented by birds; turtle also land there occasionally, and this bank
was not improperly called _Bird Islet_, being now covered with coarse
grass, some shrubs, and a soil to which the birds are every day making an
increase.

Bird Islet being to windward of, and only seven miles distant from our
bank, it was frequently visited by the gentlemen during my absence.
Besides sea birds of the species already mentioned, they procured many
thousand eggs; and also four turtle, of which one weighed 459 pounds, and
contained so many eggs, that lieutenant Fowler's journal says no less
than 1940, large and small, were counted. These supplies, with shell fish
gathered from the reef, and fish, were a great resource, and admitted of
a saving in the salt provisions; as the occasional rains, from which
several casks were filled, did of their fresh water. The _trepang_ was
found on Wreck Reef, and soup was attempted to be made of it; but whether
our cooks had not the method of stewing it down, or that the trepang is
suited only to the vitiated taste of the Chinese, nothing good was
produced

Oats, maize, and pumpkin seeds were planted upon Wreck-Reef Bank, as also
upon Bird Islet; and the young plants had come up, and were in a
tolerably flourishing state; some of these may possibly succeed upon the
islet, but upon the bank it is scarcely to be hoped. The cocoa nut is
capable of resisting the light sprays of the sea which frequently pass
over these banks, and it is to be regretted that we had none to plant
upon them. A cluster of these majestic and useful palms would have been
an excellent beacon to warn mariners of their danger; and in the case
where darkness might render them unavailing in this respect, their fruit
would at least afford some salutary nourishment to the shipwrecked
seamen. The navigator who should distribute ten thousand cocoa nuts
amongst the numerous sand banks of the Great Ocean and Indian Sea, would
be entitled to the gratitude of all maritime nations, and of every friend
to humanity. I may be thought to attribute too much importance to this
object in saying, that such a distribution ought to be a leading article
in the instructions for any succeeding voyage of discovery or
investigation to these parts; but it is from having suffered ourselves
that we learn to appreciate the misfortunes and wants of others. and
become doubly interested in preventing or relievi