It is not surprising that timorous apprehensions should agitate these poor people on the appearance of a strange vessel. Their western neighbours, the inhabitants of the island of Ralick, and of the southern islands of the groups Mediuro and Arno, which are much more thickly peopled, sometimes attack them with a superior force, plunder them, destroy their fruit-trees, and leave them scarcely subsistence enough to preserve them from starving. They had indeed imbibed from the crew of the Rurik a favourable opinion of white people; but the ship which now approached them was a monster in comparison of it, and they were excusable in supposing it manned by another and unknown race. We now reached the group Otdia, and sailed close under the outward reef, towards the Schischmaref Strait, through which I proposed to enter the basin. The sight of the ship diffused terror throughout all the islands as we passed, and the natives fled for concealment to the forests. As we approached the Lagediak Strait, the breeze was sufficient to warrant us in venturing through it; I therefore gave up my intention of entering by the Schischmaref Strait where the wind would be against us, spread all sail, and soon rode on the placid waters of the basin. I would not however advise seamen, without an adequate inducement, to choose this strait: it is so narrow, that stones might easily be thrown across from either shore; while, on the contrary, the breadth of the Schischmaref Strait admits of tacking, and renders its passage easy with a good ship. The water in the Lagediak is so transparent, that in a depth of fourteen fathoms, every stone at the bottom is discernible; the officer who sat in the tops on the watch for shallows, deceived by this appearance, expected every moment that the ship would run aground.