Here the water was comparatively smooth, and the air warm and balmy.

They ranged along the coast at about a mile's distance, looking out for a good landing.
Here was no longer an unbroken line of cliffs, but an undulating shore, with bulging rocks, and lines of reef.

After a mile or two of that the coast ran out seaward, and they passed close to a most extraordinary phenomenon of vegetation.

Great tangled woods crowned the shore and the landward slopes, and their grand foliage seemed to flow over into the sea; for here was a broad rocky flat intersected with a thousand little channels of the sea; and the thousand little islets so formed were crowded, covered and hidden with luxuriant vegetation.

Huge succulent leaves of the richest hue hung over the water, and some of the most adventurous of them showed, by the crystals that sparkled on their green surface, that the waves had actually been kissing them at high tide.