Arthur
guided the boat along the centre of the narrow pass, and in a moment we
had glided from the scene of fierce commotion without the reef, into one
of perfect tranquillity and repose. A dozen strokes seemed to have
placed us in a new world. Involuntarily we rested on our oars, and
gazed around us in silence.

From the inner edge of the reef, to the broad white beach of the island,
a space of perhaps half a mile, spread the clear expanse of the lagoon,
smooth and unruffled as the surface of an inland lake. Half-way between
the reef and the shore, were two fairy islets, the one scarcely a foot
above the water, and covered with a green mantle of low shrubs; the
other, larger and higher, and adorned by a group of graceful young
cocoa-nuts.

The island itself was higher, and bolder in its outlines than is usual
with those of coral formation, which are generally very low, and without
any diversity of surface. Dense groves clothed that portion of it
opposite to us, nearly to the beach, giving it at that hour, a somewhat
gloomy and forbidding aspect.

As we surveyed this lovely, but silent and desolate landscape, the
doubts and apprehensions which we had before experienced began once more
to suggest themselves; but they were dissipated by the cheerful voice of
Arthur, calling upon us to pull for the shore. He steered for the
larger of the two islets, and when, as the boat grated upon the coral
tops beside it, we threw down the oars, the strength which had hitherto
sustained us, seemed suddenly to fail, and we could scarcely crawl
ashore. The last scene of effort and danger, had taxed our powers to
the uttermost, and now they gave way. I was so feeble, that I could
hardly avoid sinking helplessly upon the sand. With one impulse we
kneeled down and returned thanks to Him Who had preserved us through all
the strange vicissitudes of the last few days. We next began to look
round in search of such means of refreshment as the spot might afford.

The cocoa-palms upon the islet, though far from having attained their
full growth, (few of them exceeding twelve feet in height), bore
abundantly, and we easily procured as much of the fruit as we needed.
Tearing off the outer husk, and punching a hole through the shell, which
in the young nut is so soft that this can be done with the finger, we
drank off the refreshing liquor with which it is filled; then breaking
it open, the half-formed, jelly-like kernel, furnished a spe