And at length it almost seemed as if we must have sailed past the remotest presumable westerly limit of the chain of islands we sought; a lurking suspicion which I sedulously kept to myself However, I could not but nourish a latent faith that all would yet be well.
On the ninth day my forebodings were over.

In the gray of the dawn, perched upon the peak of our sail, a noddy was seen fast asleep.

This freak was true to the nature of that curious fowl, whose name is significant of its drowsiness.

Its plumage was snow-white, its bill and legs blood-red; the latter looking like little pantalettes.
In a sly attempt at catching the bird, Samoa captured three tail- feathers; the alarmed creature flying away with a scream, and leaving its quills in his hand.
Sailing on, we gradually broke in upon immense low-sailing flights of other aquatic fowls, mostly of those species which are seldom found far from land: terns, frigate-birds, mollymeaux, reef-pigeons, boobies, gulls, and the like.

They darkened the air; their wings making overhead an incessant rustling like the simultaneous turning over of ten thousand leaves.