The number of Indians collected amounted to about sixty; they were merely residing on the island during the fishing season; for their home, as it afterwards turned out; was at a considerable distance off.  Their principal subsistence was turtle and small fish, which they caught with hook and line, and shellfish which abound on the reefs.  The island also produces a small fruit like a plum with a stone in it, probably a species of Eugenia.  The fish were broiled over the ashes of a fire, or boiled in the basin of a large volute (Voluta ethiopica) which being rather a scarce shell is of great value to them.

The island of Pullan is covered with low trees and underwood, and the soil is sandy.  In the centre of it is a spring, which supplied the whole party with sufficient water for their consumption; and, as Ireland says, they used a great deal, it must at least have yielded fifteen or twenty gallons a day, for the hole was always full.  Upon a voyage they carry their water in bamboo joints, and coconut shells, as do the Malays.

After remaining here two months, the Indians separated.  One party taking Ireland and the infant D’Oyly with them, embarked in a canoe, and after half a day’s sail reached another islet to the northward, where they remained a day and a night, on a sandy beach; and the next morning proceeded and reached another island similar to Pullan, low and bushy, where they remained a fortnight.  They then proceeded to the northward, calling on their way at different islands, and remaining as long as they supplied food, until they reached one,* where they remained a month, and then they went on a visit to Darnley’s Island, which they called Aroob, where for the first time, Ireland says, he met with kind treatment.

(Footnote.  Probably one of the group of the northward of Halfway Island, near Aureed, named by Mr. Lewis, Sir Richard Bourke’s Group.)

After a fortnight they again embarked and returned by the way they came, to an island they called Sir-reb,* situated near Aureed, where their voyage ended, and they remained until purchased by Duppar, the Murray Islander; who, it appears, upon hearing that there were two white boys in captivity, at Aureed, embarked in a canoe with his wife Pamoy, and went for the express purpose of obtaining them, taking for the purpose of barter some fruit.  The price of their ransom was a branch of bananas, for each.  They returned by way of Darnley’s Island, where they stopped a few days, and then reached Murray’s Island, where they remained ever since, and were most kindly treated.  Duppar gave little D’Oyly to a native named Oby to take care of; a charge of which he faithfully acquitted himself, and both Oby and his adopted child soon became very fond of each other; for as the child was a mere infant, he soon forgot his mother, and naturally attached himself to his nurse.  When at Aureed the Indians had named Ireland, Wak; and little D’Oyly, they called Uass; names which they retained at Murray’s Island, and by which they are doubtless now known all over the archipelago.