Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/144

120 course of the Columbia changed to that direction. The island kept growing larger and larger, and before sunset they came close up to it, and the yawl put out to find a safe entrance to what looked like a secure harbor. The coral reefs were numerous, but after an hour's soundings Tom Grandon found a safe channel, and the Columbia swept in and came to an anchor.

"What a sweet smell!" were Larry's first words, as he stood at the rail, gazing at the shore, over grown with brush, with here and there a stately cocoanut or other palm tree. "I wonder what it is."

"That is cinnamon you smell," answered Mr, Wells. "You must know that we are now approaching those islands which grow the larger part of the spices which are used throughout the world. Oceanica, as these islands are termed taken together, produces cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, and numerous other spices. As a rule the cinnamon comes from Ceylon, but single trees of that variety are to be found elsewhere, as in the present case."

"I trust we get a chance to run ashore," said the boy, eagerly. "That looks like quite a large island. I wonder if it is inhabited?"