BATTLE-FIELD, NEAR BUNAAUIA. 37 



On the 27th of March I accompanied Mr. S. 

 Henry (the son of the worthy and venerable 

 missionary of that name) to his estate near 

 Mairipehe,* with the intention of proceeding 

 from thence to visit the celebrated mountain- 

 lake at Vaihiria. From Papeete we journeyed 

 on horseback along the west coast, by a road 

 which was good for a short distance beyond 

 Bunaauia, but which ultimately became rocky, 

 or encumbered by brushwood, and occasionally 

 lost on the sands of the sea-shore. Its winding 

 course, however, unfolding to our view a con- 

 stant succession of opening valleys^ or towering 

 and verdant heights, afforded scenes of extreme 

 beauty; while many of the spots we passed 

 possessed a local interest which the kindness and 

 intelligence of my companion did not permit me 

 to disregard. 



A short distance beyond Bunaauia, we crossed 

 a plain, memorable, in the history of the civil 

 wars of this island, as having been the scene of 

 the decisive battle, fought in the year 1815, be- 

 tween the idolatrous and Christian Tahitians ; 

 when the latter, under the command of Pomare 

 II., drove their adversaries from the field with 

 great slaughter, and the loss of their leader Upu- 



* A district on the S. E. side of Tahiti, and distant 

 about thirty miles from the settlement at Papeete. 



