a's_ visit to the atoll: "As we left the ocean
depths of deepest blue and entered the coral circle, the contrast was
most remarkable. The brilliant colors of the waters, transparent to a
depth of over thirty feet, now purple, now of the bluest sky-blue, and
now green, with the white crests of the waves flashing tinder a
brilliant sun, the encircling ... palm-clad islands, the gaps between
which were to the south undiscernible, the white sand shores and the
whiter gaps where breakers appeared, and, lastly, the lagoon itself,
seven or eight miles across from north to south, and five to six from
east to west, presented a sight never to be forgotten. After some little
delay, Mr. Sidney Ross, the eldest son of Mr. George Ross, came off to
meet us, and soon after, accompanied by the doctor and another officer,
we went ashore." "On reaching the landing-stage, we found, hauled up for
cleaning, etc., the _Spray_ of Boston, a yawl of 12.70 tons gross, the
property of Captain Joshua Slocum. He arrived at the island on the 17th
of July, twenty-three days out from Thursday Island. This extraordinary
solitary traveler left Boston some two years ago single-handed, crossed
to Gibraltar, sailed down to Cape Horn, passed through the Strait of
Magellan to the Society Islands, thence to Australia, and through the
Torres Strait to Thursday Island."

The Keeling Cocos Islands, according to Admiral Fitzroy, R. N., lie
between the latitudes of 11 degrees 50' and 12 degrees 12' S., and the
longitudes of 96 degrees 51' and 96 degrees 58' E. They were
discovered in 1608-9 by Captain William Keeling, then in the service
of the East India Company. The southern group consists of seven or
eight islands and islets on the atoll, which is the skeleton of what
some day, according to the history of coral reefs, will be a
continuous island. North Keeling has no harbor, is seldom visited, and
is of no importance. The South Keelings are a strange little world,
with a romantic history all their own. They have been visited
occasionally by the floating spar of some hurricane-swept ship, or by
a tree that has drifted all the way from Australia, or by an
ill-starred ship cast away, and finally by man. Even a rock once
drifted to Keeling, held fast among the roots of a tree.

After the discovery of the islands by Captain Keeling, their first
notable visitor was Captain John Clunis-Boss, who in 1814 touched in
the ship _Borneo_ on a voyage to India. Captain Boss r