Departure from Tahiti. 255 



frigate out through the narrow channel which constitutes the 

 mouth of the harbour of Papeete, and is nothing but a cleft in 

 the coral walls which surround Tahiti, and protect it from 

 the ocean swell. 



At length, on 28th February, at day-break, we got under 

 weigh. One of our own boats, as also a boat from the French 

 steamer 3Iilan, which was courteously placed at our disposal, 

 towed the Novara outside the reef, and materially aided the 

 efforts of our men, a barely perceptible catspaw of wind just 

 filling the sails. Piloted by a native lootse, we steered out so 

 close to the projecting coral reefs, that the frigate all but 

 touched them. 



We now had a parting view of Tahiti and the little island 

 of Motu-Uta, where stood our improvised observatory, and 

 where so many sleepless nights had been passed in observa- 

 tions for the purpose of defining astronomically the exact 

 position of the island. 



We found the breeze freshened once we were outside the 

 reef, and steered northwards, beautiful Tahiti, with the im- 

 posing and irregular outline of its hills, and the richness and 

 variety of its vegetation, recalling, in some aspects, the glow- 

 ing loveliness of the tropics, in others, the still sublimity of 

 some of our Alpine landscapes, till it lay behind us like a 

 shadowy vision of dream-land. 



Almost simultaneously with the departure of the Novara, 

 the American whaler Emily Morgan, Captain Chase, stood out 

 from the harbour of Papeete. This vessel had been whaling in 



