and he soon began to recover.  The boatswain and carpenter also were ill and complained of headache and sickness of the stomach.  Others who had not had any evacuation by stool became shockingly distressed with the tenesmus so that there were but few without complaints.  An idea prevailed that the sickness of the boatswain and carpenter was occasioned by eating the dolichos.  Myself however and some others who had taken the same food felt no inconvenience; but the truth was that many of the people had eaten a large quantity of them raw, and Nelson informed me that they were constantly teasing him whenever a berry was found to know if it was good to eat; so that it would not have been surprising if many of them had been really poisoned.

Our dinner was not so well relished as at Sunday Island because we had mixed the dolichos with our stew.  The oysters and soup however were eaten by everyone except Nelson whom I fed with a few small pieces of bread soaked in half a glass of wine, and he continued to mend.

In my walk round the island I found several coconut shells, the remains of an old wigwam, and the backs of two turtless, but no sign of any quadruped.  One of the people found three seafowl’s eggs.

As is common on such spots the soil is little other than sand, yet it produced small toa-trees and some others that we were not acquainted with.  There were fish in the lagoon, but we could not catch any.  Our wants therefore were not likely to be supplied here, not even with water for our daily expense:  nevertheless I determined to wait till the morning, that we might try our success in the night for turtle and birds.  A quiet night’s rest also, I conceived, would be of essential service to those who were unwell.

The wigwam and turtle shell were proofs that the natives at times visited this place, and that they had canoes the remains of the large canoe that we saw at Sunday Island left no room to doubt:  but I did not apprehend that we ran any risk by remaining here a short time.  I directed our fire however to be made in the thicket that we might not be discovered by its light.

At noon I observed the latitude of this island to be 11 degrees 47 minutes south.  The mainland extended towards the north-west and was full of white sandhills:  another small island lay within us, bearing west by north one quarter north three leagues distant.  Our situation being very low we could see nothing of the reef towards the sea.

The afternoon was advantageously spent in sleep.  There were however a few not disposed to it, and those were employed in dressing some clams to take with us for the next day’s dinner:  others we cut up in slices to dry, which I knew was the most valuable supply we could find here, but they were very scarce.