207

H.M.S. Herald, Ovalau, Fiji,
24th July, 1855.

I avail myself of a vessel which I find here on
the start for Valparaiso to acquaint you with my
proceedings since I left Norfolk island on the 12th
ult., and where I left a despatch (No. 2), a du-
plicate of which I now enclose.

2. Adverse east wind, with very boisterous
   weather, obliged me to sight the Three Kings of
   New Zealand before I could obtain as much south-
   ing in the wind as enabled me to lie up for the
   assigned positions of the Rosaretta reef. This
   was brought about on the 22nd June; and after
   obtaining most satisfactory departure bearings,
   which placed the ship seven miles N. 22 W.
   from the north-western King, in lat. 34 1′ 48″ S,
   long. 172° 7′ 17″ E, where we had soundings
   350 fathoms, pale grit and broken shells, we were
   in the group of assigned positions on the 24th,
   favoured by the sun and stars for the frequent de-
   termination of the ship's position, and hence we
   decidedly passed over each of the following given
   positions of that reef in 200 fathoms, no bottom,
   and without being able to trace a sign of such reef:

Raper, Maritime Positions, 1849 30 25 S 173 45 E.
Findlay's List, 1851 38 10,, 173 45 ,,
Laurie's Chart, 1849 30 30,, 173 33,,

Our range of vision in the search can vouch for
the non-existence of the reef in question within
the space bounded by the meridians 173° and
174° E, between the parallels 29° 50′ and
30° 40′ S. Nevertheless I look to giving this
terrible vigia another search, even to a full degree
east and west of those negatived meridians in my
next year's passage from Sydney to this region;
and nothing but stress of weather, which drove
me to leeward with loss of quarter davits carried
by the Herald, twenty-two feet above the water
line, prevented a search which should result in
sighting it or afford reason for expunging it from
the charts.

3. My next proceeding was to test the position
   of a reef thus quoted in my hydrographic instruc-
   tions of the 14th of May, 1852, in paragraph 18:

"One of these (insulated reefs) in latitude 24° 40′
"S., 174° 43′ E., is the most dangerous, from being
"level with the water. It was seen by Captain Bethune,
"in H.M.S. Conway, in 1838."

4. The wind, now in the S.E. trades, and the
   weather (as this 360 mile run linked me with the
   tropics) highly favoured the search for Conway
   Reef; but after exploring a space embracing
   thirty miles east and west of its assigned longi-
   tude, head and look out, indeed, being vigilantly
   exercised from longitude 174° 10′ to 175° 20′ E.
   between the parallels of 24°14′ and 24° 52′ 5″
   without any indication, such as the usual presence
   of sea fowl and flying fish, which generally pre-
   cede the discovery of breakers in this region, I
   was constrained to conclude that the latitude 24°
   40′ S. given, meant 21°40′; for upon the meri-
   dian named I could trace in documents around me
   assigned positions of a reef 180 miles further north.

Lat. S. Long. E.
Cheyne's list, 1852, - 21 40 174 43
Findlay's list, 1851, - 21 40 174 40
Laurie's chart (Bolger reef) 21 36 174 40
Samoan Gazette, 1854 (Rapid) 21 36 174 50

And in due course, guided by these positions and
and the usual indications, I was enabled to anchor
the Herald alongside of a reef, on the 2nd of this
month, July.

5. This reef, which I shall call Conway Reef,
   (until I hear that Captain Bethune's original
   figures really read 24°40′, when another search
   must be instituted on his parallel) afforded the
   most deliberate means of deciding its position of
   any reef of this Atoll character that I have fallen
   in with; inasmuch that it presents a sandbank in
   its centre, 300 yarns long, by seventy-five yards

wide, elevated six and a half feet above high water...
level. The coral oval-formed rim of the reef is
only awash at low water, subject to a tidal rise of
five and a half feet, and trends east and west one
and a half miles by half a mile in width. Equal
altitudes and circum-meridian observations, upon
the sandbank place, the centre of this reef in lati-
tude 21° 44′ 48″ S., and by meridian distance with
this well determined spot, after apportioning the
back rates of thirteen chronometers to an eleven-
day run thither, in longitude 174° 36′ 55″ E.,
The Magentic variation came out 10° 34′ E., and
the time of high water at F. and C. VIIh. 42m.
So remarkably steep to is this reef that with our
anchor in thirty fathoms at a quarter of a mile off.
we had 101 fathoms under the ship's stern...

The accompanying paper, drawn up by assis-
tant-surgeon J, Denis Macdonald, results from
his indefatigable visit with me to the reef, and
will describe its natural history, while the tracing
of our projection, on the scale of one inch to a
mile, will place its contour and proportions before
you.

6. It was a gloomy fact that the Conwey reef
   had, within the last six months, proved fatal to a
   fine ship, the bows and head-gear of which are
   still reared up on the windward margin of it, and
   visible for eight miles before the leaping breakers
   can be made out. There were, likewise, two
   bower anchors at another part of the direful wea-
   ther margin of this reef. A rudely-carved bottom
   board of a boat lay upon the sandbank, thus let-
   tered, "Ship Logan, wrecked 26th Jany. /55,
   bound to Fiji." She was evidently a whaler.
   There were no indications of prolonged occupa-
   tion or sufferings upon the sandbank, and all her
   boats would, it seemed, have been extricated
   and so indeed it proved, for, on our arrival at
   Ovalau, the event was fully known. The master
   and crew, except four who were panic-struck and
   drowned at the instant, reached this place
   quickly; and subsequently, in a vessel bound to
   Sydney, they bore the intelligence of their disas-
   ter, and which, I learn, the master of this Ameri-
   can whaler ascribes to the reef being laid down
   forty miles in error upon his chart. This, as a
   cause of such disasters, I may say is now obviated
   by the Herald visiting it; and further so, if my
   design of planting a grove of cocoa-nut trees upon
   the sandbank flourishes.

7. From Conway Reef I desired to test Under-
   wood Reef, as exhibited in Laurie's chart at 140
   miles to the N.E. in latitude 20° 20′ S, 176°
   48′ E., but prevaling easterly winds prevented my
   doing so without incurring an undue accumula-
   tion of rates for back meridian distance, with
   regard to Levuka observatory spot of 1854, and
   Conway Reef.

8. It was on the evening of the 7th July that I
   fetched up under the lee of the Western extreme
   of Fiji (Viti Levu), and sighted the barrier reef
   of Malolo. From thence I worked round south-
   eastward to and through the Kandavu channel;
   in the centre of which, i.e., midway (fifteen miles
   from either shore) between Mbenga Island and
   Kandavu island, we brought the bottom up from
   a perpendicular sounding of 1,020 fathoms, the
   microscopic developement of which is so novel
   and interesting that assistant-surgeon Macdonald
   will be as disapointed as myself if his paper and
   illustrations cannot be prepared for this enclosure.
   In this, we trace at once from thirty to forty
   distinct genera of foraminifera, most of which
   belong to existing forms, though only traceable as
   fossils in the northern hemisphere; besides the
   negative casts of lead to 200 fathoms, no bottom,
   at every ten miles from Conway reef. I availed
   myself of the light winds and smooth water after
   entering this Archipelago to carry soundings of
   440 and 360 fathoms (light brown mud) to within
   four miles of the barrier reef of Mbau waters.

9. On resuming our former cordial commerce
   with our Fiji acquaintances it was gratifying