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The population was busy on the strand, but no one seemed rightly to know what should be done in this alarming crisis. We next saw a long procession of islanders, bearing branches of palm as symbols of peace, taking advantage of the ebb-tide to cross the reef towards Otdia, and carrying baskets of cocoa-nuts and other fruits on poles.
The coral islands that surround Radak, especially the low island of Otdia, furnish also fresh water. It is too general a prejudice to consider every source of fresh or salt water to be merely a local phenomenon: currents of water circulate in the interior of lands between strata of rocks of a particular density or nature, at immense distances, like the floods that furrow the surface of the globe.
Time passed very quickly at Otdia, as it usually does when pleasantly spent; and, to the great sorrow of our friends, the day of our departure drew near. On Sunday the sailors were allowed to amuse themselves on shore; and as there were some musicians among them, they carried their instruments with them, to take leave of the islanders with a brilliant musical festival.
Hence it appeared that my friends had yielded to their destiny, and hoped to win the favour of the intruders by humility and presents. From their former dismay, I anticipated that Kadu was absent, or he would have inspired his countrymen with more confidence. We dropped anchor at noon opposite Otdia, on the same spot where the Rurik formerly rode.
Our eight days' stay at the coral island Otdia, afforded us an opportunity to observe or collect about one hundred different kinds of marine animals. It has already been mentioned elsewhere, that the only kind of mammalia found upon this island is a middling-sized cat, which feeds on the fruit of the pandanus tree, and makes its nest in the dead branches, which it easily hollows out.
I enjoyed a still greater pleasure, when after the first course of baked and bread-fruits, came one of yams, which I had brought hither from the Sandwich Islands. At Otdia, I had been told that Lamari had carried away to Aur all the plants I had left behind. I was therefore much surprised at the sight of the yams.
An inhabitant named Kadu of the group Kawan, no native, but thrown there by a storm from the island of Ulle, made the voyage from Otdia to Unalaschka and back with us in the ship Rurik, and gained the good-will of the whole crew.
One native, Rarik by name, was particularly cordial to the Russians, whom he informed that the name of his island and of the chain of islets and attolls connected with it was Otdia.
Lagediak, after finishing his measurements, did not again move from my side. His desire of knowledge was boundless; nor could the explanations I was obliged to give upon the most insignificant articles satisfy his curiosity. On learning that we could stay only a few days at Otdia, he again became very sorrowful, and most earnestly pressed me to spend the remainder of my life here.
It was an uncommonly fine day, and a fresh and favourable wind carried us quickly towards land. Our inquiring glances soon showed us from the deck, on the island Otdia, the airy groves of palms which enclose the residence of Rarik, and under whose shade I had so often sat among the friendly islanders.
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