Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/225

 (Above, in the heavens). The smallest idol was made of stones and was about four feet high. These natives thought that we came down from the skies. Cocoanut Island would have been a very appropriate name for this  one, as it was nearly covered with groves of these trees.

After visiting Oatafer, Utiroa, and several other islands in the Ellis, Gilbert, and Kingsmill groups, we steered a

KINGSMILL IDOL.

direct course for Oahu. For several days the weather was changeable — short calms, sudden squalls, with fresh  breezes, both fair and foul — and the wind dead ahead  most of the time. Quite a number of flying fish were picked up on deck, some of them measuring fifteen  inches in length. We also caught several porpoises.

August 20, 21, and 22. Light breezes and fair weather. Early on the morning of the 23d land was reported from