a turtle’s egg, as I judged by the gluten and by the shell lying near the place.  Of the intention in setting up these stones under a shed, no person could form a reasonable conjecture; the first idea was, that it had some relation to the dead, and we dug underneath to satisfy our curiosity; but nothing was found.  This simple monument is represented in the annexed plate, with two of the ducks near it:  the land in the back ground is Vanderlin’s Island.

Indications of some foreign people having visited this group were almost as numerous, and as widely extended as those left by the natives.  Besides pieces of earthen jars and trees cut with axes, we found remnants of bamboo lattice work, palm leaves sewed with cotton thread into the form of such hats as are worn by the Chinese, and the remains of blue cotton trousers, of the fashion called moormans.  A wooden anchor of one fluke, and three boats rudders of violet wood were also found; but what puzzled me most was a collection of stones piled together in a line, resembling a low wall, with short lines running perpendicularly at the back, dividing the space behind into compartments.  In each of these were the remains of a charcoal fire, and all the wood near at hand, had been cut down.  Mr. Brown saw on another island a similar construction, with not less than thirty-six partitions, over which was laid a rude piece of frame work; and the neighbouring mangroves, to the extent of an acre and a half, had been cut down.  It was evident that these people were Asiatics, but of what particular nation, or what their business here, could not be ascertained; I suspected them, however, to be Chinese, and that the nutmegs might possibly be their object.  From the traces amongst Wellesley’s Islands, they had been conjectured to be shipwrecked people; but that opinion did not now appear to be correct.

The barometer stood here from 29.96 to 29.62 inches, being highest with the winds at north-east, and lowest with those from the southward; in the heavy squalls of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning from the north-west, the mercury stood at a medium elevation.  On board the ship, the average standard of the thermometer was nearly 85 deg..  On shore it was hotter, yet the musketoes were not very troublesome; but the common black flies, from their extraordinary numbers and their impudence, were scarcely less annoying than musketoes; they get into the mouth and nose, and settle upon the face or any other part of the body, with as much unconcern as they would alight on a gum tree; nor are they driven away easily.  This was the case on shore, and on board the ship whilst lying at anchor, and for a day or two afterwards; but the society of man wrought a change in the manners even of these little animals.  They soon became more cautious, went off when a hand was lifted up, and in three or four days after quitting the land, behaved themselves orderly, like other flies; and though still numerous on board, they gave little molestation.  Dampier