More islands came into view as we advanced; and at last we had sight of the most south-westerly island of that little cluster, which is not connected to the rest by any reef. It is in lat. 1° 39′ S. and in long. 141° 58′ E.
We lay to during the whole night.
4th. This morning, we saw, towards the south, a low and very woody island, about 8,000 toises in extent. This new island was in 1° 31′ S. lat. and 140° 47′ E. longitude.
We soon discovered another island, still less than, and to the S.W. of, the former, from which it is 15,000 toises. It is equally low, and covered with large trees.
On those low islands near the Equator, the trees grow with astonishing rapidity and vigour;[1] as the atmosphere furnishes them at once with extreme heat and moisture.
Although we had been, for some days, very near the Line, and found the heat suffocating, the thermometer had not yet risen above 24½°.
- ↑ This is more particularly true of trees, which are of a spongy texture, as the silk cotton tree, bombax, the sand-box tree, hura, &c. But many of the hard woods, for example, the lignum vitæ, or gujacum, grow very slowly, and hence have been almost extirpated, in all the tropical islands, fully inhabited by Europeans.—Translator.
