Neither of these suppositions, I feel fully satisfied, accounts for the origin of the reef, because, at the place where we now were, I could trace, at low water, a rocky connection between the reef and the rocks of which the hills were composed. It is more probable that the reef owes its origin to the decay of the rock between it and the shore, but in what manner I will not attempt to explain. This sandstone, as I will hereafter show, belongs to the lower series of the chalk formation. We slept at the house of the relation of the master of the canoe, who was a tailor by trade, and an acknowledged poet and wit: in the society of whom and his family, consisting of several sons and daughters, the time passed away most agreeably. Early in the morning of the following day we again pursued our voyage, keeping, as before, close along the shore, and at about two o’clock P.M., we arrived at Barra de S. Antonio Grande, a small village about nine leagues to the north of Maceio, consisting of about one hundred houses, the greater part of which are made of cocoa-nut leaves, and are mostly situated on a projecting point of flat land, bounded on one side by the sea, and on the other by a small river of the same name as the village, both deriving their appellation from a large bar of white sand which stretches across the mouth of the river at some distance from the shore. The inhabitants live principally by fishing, but I was informed on my arrival at Maceio, that it is a place much resorted to by slave vessels for the delivery of their cargoes, and it certainly appears to be well suited for such a purpose.