1835.] PRODUCTIONS OF THE SOIL. 293 



weather, while running pleasantly along at the rate of 150 or 160 

 miles a day before the steady trade wind. The temperature in this 

 more central part of the Pacific is higher than near the American 

 shore. The thermometer in the poop cabin, by night and day, ranged 

 between 80 and 83, which feels very pleasant ; but with one degree 

 or two higher, the heat becomes oppressive. We passed through the 

 Low or Dangerous Archipelago, and saw several of those most curious 

 rings of coral land, just rising above the water's edge, which have been 

 called Lagoon Islands. A long and brilliantly-white beach is capped 

 by a margin of green vegetation ; and the strip, looking either way, 

 rapidly narrows away in the distance, and sinks beneath the horizon. 

 From the mast-head a wide expanse of smooth water can be seen 

 within the ring. These low hollow coral islands bear no proportion 

 to the vast ocean out of which they abruptly rise ; and it seems 

 wonderful, that such weak invaders are not overwhelmed by the 

 all-powerful and never-tiring waves of that great sea, miscalled the 

 Pacific. 



November i$th. At daylight, Tahiti, an island which must for ever 

 remain classical to the voyager in the South Sea, was in view. At a 

 distance the appearance was not attractive. The luxuriant vegetation 

 of the lower part could not yet be seen, and as the clouds rolled past, 

 the wildest and most precipitous peaks showed themselves towards 

 the centre of the island. As soon as we anchored in Matavai Bay, we 

 were surrounded by canoes. This was our Sunday, but the Monday of 

 Tahiti; if the case had been reversed, we should not have received a' 

 single visit ; for the injunction not to launch a canoe on the Sabbath is 

 rigidly obeyed. After dinner we landed to enjoy all the delights pro- 

 duced by the first impressions of a new country, and that country the 

 charming Tahiti. A crowd of men, women, and children, was collected 

 on the memorable Point Venus, ready to receive us with laughing, 

 merry faces. They marshalled us towards the hous'e of Mr. Wilson, 

 the missionary of the district, who met us on the road, and gave us a 

 very friendly reception. After sitting a short time in his house, we 

 separated to walk about, but returned there in the evening. 



The land capable of cultivation, is scarcely in any part more than a 

 fringe of low alluvial soil, accumulated round the base of the moun- 

 tains, and protected from the waves of the sea by a coral reef, which 

 encircles the entire line of coast. Within the reef there is an expanse 

 of smooth water, like that of a lake, where the canoes of the natives can 

 ply with safety and where ships anchor. The low land which comes 

 down to the beach of coral-sand, is covered by the most beautiful pro- 

 ductions of the intertropical regions. In the midst of bananas, orange, 

 cocoa-nut, and bread-fruit trees, spots are cleared where yams, sweet 

 potatoes, the sugar-cane, and pine-apples, are cultivated. Even the 

 brushwood is an imported fruit-tree, namely, the guava, which from its 

 well remarks, utterly inexplicable connected with the different degrees of 

 shyness and care with which birds conceal their nests. How strange it is 

 that the English wood-pigeon, generally so wild a bird, should very fre- 

 quently rear its young in shrubberies close to houses ! 



