Two days after crossing the line we sighted the island of Fernando Noronha, which, with several outlying islets, is a very picturesque spot.  It belongs to the empire of the Brazils, and is used as a penal settlement.  As Captain Frankland wished to touch at every place not out of his way, we dropped anchor in Citadel Bay, opposite a fort on which the Brazilian colours were flying.  A boat was lowered, and though some heavy rollers were setting into the bay, we managed to get on shore on the top of one of them without getting wet--that is to say, the captain, Gerard, and I.  It was really a pretty sight.  We pulled on steadily, with the head of the boat directed on shore; then a high, heaving, glassy wave came gliding in, and the boat was on its summit; now the men pulled away with all their might, and on we flew till the boat's keel touched the beach.  Quickly the waters receded.  The instant they did so we all jumped out, and hauling the boat up before another roller came in, she was high and dry out of harm's way.  A guard of blacks received us; and hearing that the town was only about a mile and a half distant, we set off to walk there.  We passed through a pretty valley, and some woods of tropical shrubs, with the blue sea visible beneath their broad, fan-like leaves, and by many huts and cottages, inhabited mostly by blacks, who seemed very much astonished at our appearance.  At last we reached the town, which has an open space in the centre, and a church and the governor's house at one end, and a strong fort above it.  Here nearly all the soldiers and free men are blacks, while the whites are mostly slaves, made so by their crimes.  It must be rather a satisfactory state of things to the feelings of the blacks.  The governor of this place--of a hundred houses or so--received us very civilly, and gave the captain all the information he required; and, besides that, a good supply of vegetables, which the island produces in abundance.