Explore "Wanderings in New South Wales, Batavia, Pedir Coast, Singapore, and China, Volume 2" by George Bennett on Textopian.
(_See_ page 399, vol. i.)
It was on the 24th of August, 1829, (calm and fine weather, thermometer at noon 79°,) in the evening, when the ship Sophia was lying at anchor in _Marakini Bay_, on the south-west side of the island of Erromanga, one of the New Hebrides Group, Southern Pacific Ocean, that something was seen floating on the surface of the water, at some distance from the ship; to many it appeared like a small dead tortoiseshell cat, which would have been such an unusual object to be seen in this part of the world, that the boat which was alongside the ship at the time, was sent for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of the floating object.