On the 11th of May, after long anticipating our much wished for departure, we got underway, and saluting the fort as we passed it with twenty-one guns, stood out to sea and shaped our course for Chili. Nothing material transpired from the time of our sailing until the 7th of June, when standing along with a fresh trade, and the night dark and squally, at 10 P.M., the lookout-ahead reported land close aboard. We tacked and lay to for the night, to survey our newly discovered island on the following morning. At daylight, it bore S.S.W., about six miles from us, and appeared in three small hummocs, covered thickly with trees and bushes, every where bounded by a coral reef and heavy surf. We hesitated for some time whether we should land, apprehending that it would be attended with too much risk, merely for the gratification of curiosity; but this feeling operated so powerfully upon us, that there was no resisting the desire to land where no one had ever been before. Accordingly, two boats were sent off, and watching a favourable opportunity passed through the surf in safety, and landed on the coral bank where they were left high and dry by the receding wave. It was on the lee side of the island, and a coral reef stretched off about fifty or a hundred yards from the shore, full of holes, and almost dry at low water. In the holes we sought for fish, as at Caroline Island, but found very few. On traversing the island, we could find no fruit or vegetable of any description except bup. In most places it was covered with trees and bushes of a thick growth, almost impenetrable. In the bushes we found a great many tropical birds setting, so tame that we could take them off of their nests with our hands, and in getting upon the weather side of the island where there was a clear space, we found a species of small gull, so numerous, that when they rose from the ground at our approach, they appeared to form almost a compact mass. The sand was literally covered with their eggs, which, upon examination, proved to be unfit for use, with few exceptions. The birds flew and hovered so near to us that we caught several of them with our hands. After amusing ourselves a little while with the novel spectacle of such numbers of birds so very tame, we collected all the old eggs within a small space, and in less than twenty minutes after it had been thus cleared, it was again covered with fresh eggs by the birds that were constantly lighting. We might, in a few hours, have loaded our boats with them. When we returned to our boats to go on board, the tide had risen, and with it the surf had increased to an alarming degree. At first, we held a consultation whether we should attempt to pass through it or remain until it should again subside with the falling of the tide; but the day was far advanced, and the appearance of the weather such, as in all probability would render our situation extremely painful, there being every prospect of an increase of wind.