144 TAHAITI IN VIEW. 
of a mixed character, serious, and comic, but 
for want of a thorough acquaintance with the 
language, they have been very imperfectly de- 
scribed to us. Thus, oppressed by no care, bur- 
dened by no toil, tormented by no passion, sel- 
dom visited by sickness, their wants easily satis- 
fied, and their pleasures often recurring, the 
Tahaitians passed a life of enjoyment under the 
magnificent sky of the tropics, and amid scenes 
worthy of Paradise. 
On the 12th of March, a scheaatifal bright 
morning, we had the pleasure to perceive Ta- 
haiti before us, like a light cloud in the clear 
horizon. All that we had read of its loveliness 
now rose .to our remembrance, heightened by 
the vivid colouring of the imagination; but 
seventy miles were yet to be traversed ere we 
could tread the land of expectation, and a very 
slow progress, occasioned by a flagging wind, 
tried our patience. We continued, however, to 
advance, and the light cloud became larger, and 
denser, and higher, soon assuming the appear- 
ance of three separate hills belonging to different 
islands; the highest point, eight thousand feet 
above the level of the sea, is the summit of a 
