not before remarked in any of these islands. There were also two or three cripples, who were not less remarkable, being the first we had seen. All the females were very old, and, upon inquiring the cause, they replied, that the young men had sent the young women away, for fear they would be given presents. Two or three large sail canoes came from a great distance over the inland sea, and approached us without fear. The natives told us that they had never seen white men before. The captain landed upon a different island from myself, and the natives, having fled from their habitations as they did upon the island where I landed, he sent a few old people, that were found, commanding all the inhabitants to return to their homes, and, fearing his displeasure, in a few minutes their huts were occupied in the same manner as though the white-faced strangers had not appeared amongst them. At five, P.M., we returned to the schooner, with our boats laden with fruit, and soon afterwards made sail, shaping our course for the Sandwich Islands. We were favoured with south easterly trades, blowing in fresh gales for a number of days, which rendered our passage materially shorter than it would probably have been otherwise. But what was still less to have been expected than a south-east trade in the northern tropic, was a strong current, that set us at the rate of thirty to forty miles a day, N.E. from the latitude of sixteen to twenty-five north. Part of the time that we experienced this strong current, the wind was blowing a double-reefed top-sail breeze from East and E.N.E., differing only from two to four points with the opposite direction of the current. When we arrived in the latitude of twenty-three degrees north, the trades left us, and the winds became variable. At meridian of December the 24th, we were, by our calculation, thirty miles from an island, said to have been discovered recently by a whaler, and which we made to bear from us E. by N. Our latitude observed was twenty-five degrees fifty-seven minutes, N. Longitude, by chronometer, one hundred and eighty-six degrees twenty-seven minutes, W. We ran off to the eastward all the following day, and at meridian, December 25th, observed, in latitude twenty-six degrees, N.; longitude one hundred and eighty-three degrees twenty minutes W., without having seen the slightest indications of land. On Christmas day, we gave the crew a dinner of turtle, which were still fat, and very delicious. We had fed them occasionally upon bup and other vegetation, that was found upon the islands.