In Returning In The Evening To The Boat, We
Stopped To Witness A Very Pretty Scene.
Numbers of children
were playing on the beach, and had lighted bonfires
which illumined the placid sea and surrounding trees;
others, in circles, were singing Tahitian verses.
We seated
ourselves on the sand, and joined their party. The songs
were impromptu, and I believe related to our arrival: one
little girl sang a line, which the rest took up in parts,
forming a very pretty chorus. The whole scene made us
unequivocally aware that we were seated on the shores of an
island in the far-famed South Sea.
17th. - This day is reckoned in the log-book as Tuesday
the 17th, instead of Monday the 16th, owing to our, so far,
successful chase of the sun. Before breakfast the ship was
hemmed in by a flotilla of canoes; and when the natives
were allowed to come on board, I suppose there could not
have been less than two hundred. It was the opinion of
every one that it would have been difficult to have picked out
an equal number from any other nation, who would have
given so little trouble. Everybody brought something for
sale: shells were the main articles of trade. The Tahitians
now fully understand the value of money, and prefer it to
old clothes or other articles. The various coins, however, of
English and Spanish denomination puzzle them, and they
never seemed to think the small silver quite secure until
changed into dollars. Some of the chiefs have accumulated
considerable sums of money. One chief, not long since,
offered 800 dollars (about 160 pounds sterling) for a small
vessel; and frequently they purchase whale-boats and horses at
the rate of from 50 to 100 dollars.
After breakfast I went on shore, and ascended the nearest
slope to a height of between two and three thousand feet.
The outer mountains are smooth and conical, but steep; and
the old volcanic rocks, of which they are formed, have been
cut through by many profound ravines, diverging from the
central broken parts of the island to the coast. Having
crossed the narrow low girt of inhabited and fertile land,
I followed a smooth steep ridge between two of the deep
ravines. The vegetation was singular, consisting almost
exclusively of small dwarf ferns, mingled higher up, with
coarse grass; it was not very dissimilar from that on some
of the Welsh hills, and this so close above the orchard of
tropical plants on the coast was very surprising. At the
highest point, which I reached, trees again appeared. Of
the three zones of comparative luxuriance, the lower one
owes its moisture, and therefore fertility, to its flatness;
for, being scarcely raised above the level of the sea, the water
from the higher land drains away slowly. The intermediate
zone does not, like the upper one, reach into a damp and
cloudy atmosphere, and therefore remains sterile. The
woods in the upper zone are very pretty, tree-ferns replacing
the cocoa-nuts on the coast. It must not, however, be
supposed that these woods at all equal in splendour the
forests of Brazil. The vast numbers of productions, which
characterize a continent, cannot be expected to occur in
an island.
From the highest point which I attained, there was a good
view of the distant island of Eimeo, dependent on the same
sovereign with Tahiti. On the lofty and broken pinnacles,
white massive clouds were piled up, which formed an island
in the blue sky, as Eimeo itself did in the blue ocean. The
island, with the exception of one small gateway, is completely
encircled by a reef. At this distance, a narrow but well-
defined brilliantly white line was alone visible, where the
waves first encountered the wall of coral. The mountains
rose abruptly out of the glassy expanse of the lagoon, included
within this narrow white line, outside which the heaving
waters of the ocean were dark-coloured. The view was
striking: it may aptly be compared to a framed engraving,
where the frame represents the breakers, the marginal paper
the smooth lagoon, and the drawing the island itself. When
in the evening I descended from the mountain, a man, whom
I had pleased with a trifling gift, met me, bringing with him
hot roasted bananas, a pine-apple, and cocoa-nuts. After
walking under a burning sun, I do not know anything more
delicious than the milk of a young cocoa-nut. Pine-apples
are here so abundant that the people eat them in the same
wasteful manner as we might turnips. They are of an excellent
flavor - perhaps even better than those cultivated in
England; and this I believe is the highest compliment which
can be paid to any fruit. Before going on board, Mr. Wilson
interpreted for me to the Tahitian who had paid me so adroit
an attention, that I wanted him and another man to accompany
me on a short excursion into the mountains.
18th. - In the morning I came on shore early, bringing
with me some provisions in a bag, and two blankets for myself
and servant. These were lashed to each end of a long
pole, which was alternately carried by my Tahitian companions
on their shoulders. These men are accustomed thus
to carry, for a whole day, as much as fifty pounds at each
end of their poles. I told my guides to provide themselves
with food and clothing; but they said that there was plenty
of food in the mountains, and for clothing, that their skins
were sufficient. Our line of march was the valley of Tiaauru,
down which a river flows into the sea by Point Venus.
This is one of the principal streams in the island, and its
source lies at the base of the loftiest central pinnacles,
which rise to a height of about 7000 feet. The whole island
is so mountainous that the only way to penetrate into the
interior is to follow up the valleys.
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