222 Voyage of the Novara. 



victory. The obscene Tahitlan dances on the Sundays in 

 Government wardens had been resuscitated five months be- 

 fore, and for this reason Pr^ Catalan, the only public prome- 

 nade in Tahiti, is avoided by the Europeans resident in 

 Papeete. The Protestants feel themselves sorely aggrieved 

 by having such a spectacle openly sanctioned on the Lord's 

 Day by the French authorities, and a collection having been 

 set on foot about the time of our visit for raising sufficient 

 to maintain a permanent band of music, a number of Pro- 

 testants and missionaries declined to subscribe, on the ground 

 of disapproving of money being expended in promoting such 

 amusements. 



Among the excursions made by the members of the Expedi- 

 tion, a double interest attached to that made to Point Venus. 

 It was on this promontory that Captain Cook first made the 

 astronomical observations by which he determined the posi- 

 tion of the island. The ride thither lay through delicious 

 groves of cocoa-palms and bread-fruit trees, mingled here 

 and there with citron and orange trees, as also bananas and 

 guavas. Near the Point lies the village of Matavai, in- 

 habited by several white settlers, each in his little cottage with 

 its blooming garden around it. The tree-like Oleander and the 

 beautiful red flower Hibiscus rosasinensis towered above in full 

 bloom, the entire scene being almost sufficient to captivate a 

 European. The native governor of the district is a pretty 

 well educated man, who has spent nine months in Paris, and 

 on the occasion of the capture by the French of the fort of 



