The many islands composing this Archipelago, and which the little coralline insects have built in the midst of the ocean, are so low, that they are invisible at a very trifling distance. From this cause they have often, in darkness or bad weather, proved dangerous to navigation, and have thence derived their name. It was my intention now, to ascertain exactly the geographical position of the islands which I had discovered on my former voyage. O Tahaiti was to serve as a point from which to determine the longitude, and at the same time to furnish us with provisions. I directed my course to this Archipelago, between the parallels of 15 and 16 degrees of South latitude, because this is not the usual track of merchants' ships, nor has it been taken in voyages of discovery, so that I thought it not improbable that we might fall in with other unknown islands. In pursuance of this plan, we steered north-west, for the above mentioned parallel. An uninterrupted fresh south wind having carried us six hundred and sixty miles forwards in three days, brought us into the hot climate so suddenly, that we were much inconvenienced by it. The island of Juan Fernandez, whither the Spaniards, when masters in Chili, used to banish criminals and republicans, lay on our left, and the little uninhabited rocky islands of Felix and Ambrosia at a little distance on our right. After rapidly gaining the Southern Tropic, our voyage, though pleasant, was far more tranquil; the slightness of the motion between the Tropics, admits of employment on board a ship, for which a sailor has generally little opportunity; even drawings may be executed in the neatest manner. On the 17th February we found ourselves under eighteen degrees of South latitude, and a hundred and five degrees longitude. The weather continued fine and serene, and our men expressed a wish to interrupt the uniformity of their lives, by getting up a play. The theatre was prepared, the play-bills given out, and the orchestra had even made the signal for the company to assemble, when our merriment was suddenly changed into terror and distress; another sailor fell overboard. He had been keeping watch on the fore-mast, to provide for our safety against land and shallows, in this untried region, and having neglected to secure his own, fell a sacrifice to his thoughtlessness. Being injured by the fall, he immediately sunk, and all our efforts to save him proved fruitless. Separated as we had long been from our native country, the loss of a member of our little society, thus bound together through good or ill fortune, was sensibly felt; the poor fellow was, besides, one of our best sailors: in the most violent storms, he had often executed the most dangerous tasks at the mast-head with the greatest skill, and now in the finest weather, with the ship moving in a manner scarcely perceptible, was he destined to end, thus suddenly, his active and useful life.