The genesis of folly is as difficult to analyse as the genesis of most other things.
All this while the dull thunder of the surf was growing louder and louder; till, not as in England over a bare down, but through thickest foliage down to the high tide mark, we rode out upon the shore, and saw before us a right noble sight; a flat, sandy, surf beaten shore, along which stretched, in one grand curve, lost at last in the haze of spray, fourteen miles of Coco palms.
This was the Cocal; and it was worth coming all the way from England to see it alone.

I at once felt the truth of my host's saying, that if I went to the Cocal I should find myself transported suddenly from the West Indies to the East.

Just such must be the shore of a Coral island in the Pacific.
These Cocos, be it understood, are probably not indigenous.

They spread, it is said, from an East Indian vessel which was wrecked here.

Be that as it may, they have thoroughly naturalised themselves.