Monday, December 7th.—­The commander of the island, M. Bizot, visited me to-day.  He is an agreeable and intelligent young man of twenty-four or five years of age, and appeared very friendly and expressed sympathy for our cause.  His position is a flattering one for a man of his age and rank, and he seems to have entered upon his duties with pride and zeal.  He brought me a chart of the island, surveyed last year.  The French have been in possession two years and a half.  He spoke of my having hoisted the English flag upon first anchoring, and seemed surprised that we had not heard of the possession of the island by the French, which, he said, had been notified to all the Powers.  I pleasantly told him that I had had some notion of taking possession of it myself, but that I had found the French ahead of me.  He brought down for me the welcome present of a pig and some little fruit, and told me he had a potato patch on shore, which he would share with me.  Fresh provisions of all kinds are so scarce here that I fear my generous friend has been robbing himself.  He told me that he had one hundred and forty forcats—­slave-prisoners —­at the village, whom he meant to put to good use in constructing store and dwelling-houses, &c.  The hunters brought on board to-day an East India bat, or vampire, measuring two feet ten inches from tip to tip of wing.  Its head resembled that of a dog or wolf more than any other animal, its teeth being very sharp and strong.  Among the curiosities of the island is a locust, that has a whistle almost as loud as that of a railroad.

Tuesday, Dec. 8th.—­The Commander of the Junk came on board, and brought me a couple of fowls.  The apes here are very large, and quite fierce.  They will not run from you, but come around you, and grin and chatter at you.  An officer shot one, and he died like a human being, throwing his hands over his wound and uttering piercing cries!  This monkey was afterwards buried in the sand by his comrades, though the interment was not quite complete when the operators were interrupted.  This is the reason why nobody ever sees a dead monkey, any more, as the Singhalese proverb says, than a white crow or a straight cocoa-nut tree.  A curious vegetable product was brought on board to-day, it being to all appearance a finely-made Havana cigar.  The fibre is woody, covered with a smooth bark, and the colour of dark tobacco.  It comes from the tree perfect in shape, and is not a seed-pod or fruit.  One is at a loss to conceive its use or functions.  The illusion caused by its appearance is perfect.  We had no success with the sieve, the fish here being all jumpers, and jumping out of the net.

Wednesday, Dec. 9th.—­The excessive heat and moisture of the climate here is very enervating.  We begin to feel its effects already.  It weighs upon us like a vapour-bath, and we feel indisposed to take the least exercise; a walk on shore of half a mile or so quite overcomes us.