Having got our luggage properly placed on its elevated platform, so as to be out of the reach of the water, which continually washes over these rafts, we commenced our voyage. The wind almost constantly blows at that season from the north-east, and consequently was nearly right against us, rendering it necessary to beat up between the reef and the shore; the intermediate distance varying from a quarter of a mile to two miles, all the way from Recife to the island. By four o’clock in the afternoon, finding that the unfavourable wind prevented our performing more than half the voyage, we determined to land at a small fishing village called Pao Amarello, and there pass the night. It was not without some difficulty that we obtained a shelter wherein we could sling our hammocks; after meeting with several refusals, the owner of a small public-house (Venda) pointed out an empty hut made of cocoa-nut leaves, and permitted us to take possession of it for the night. Hither, therefore, we moved our luggage, and after a supper of stewed fish and farinha, slept soundly till daybreak. After getting up, we took a walk a little way into the country; the soil we found to be sandy, and the herbaceous vegetation completely scorched up by the drought. At this place the reef is about a mile distant from the shore, and is distinctly perceptible along its whole line, both at high and low water, for although the ebb tide leaves the rocks quite bare, the surf marks its position even at the highest flow. The wind having now shifted more to the eastward, we were enabled after breakfast to proceed on our voyage, and as we made much more rapid progress than on the preceding day, we reached the island at noon, and landed on the eastern side of it at Pilar, the principal town.