I83S.] WEALTH OF THE CHIEFS. 295 



the names of common things ; and by the aid of this, together with 

 signs, a lame sort of conversation could be carried on. In returning in 

 the evening to the boat we stopped to witness a very pretty scene. 

 Numbers of children were playing on the beach, and had lighted bon- 

 fires, which illumined the placid sea and surrounding trees ; others, in 

 circles, were singing Tahitian verses. We seated ourselves on the 

 sand, and joined their party. The songs were impromptu, and I 

 believe related to our arrival : one little girl sang a line, which the rest 

 took up in parts, forming a very pretty chorus. The whole scene made 

 us unequivocally aware that we were seated on the shores of an island 

 in the far-famed South Sea. 



November 17 th. This day is reckoned in the log-book as Tuesday 

 the 1 7th, instead of Monday the i6th, owing to our, so far, successful 

 chase of the sun. Before breakfast the ship was hemmed in by a 

 flotilla of canoes ; and when the natives were allowed to come on board 

 I suppose there could not have been less than two hundred. It was 

 the opinion of every one that it would have been difficult to have 

 picked out an equal number from any other nation, who would have 

 given so little trouble. Everybody brought something for sale : shells 

 were the main article of trade. The Tahitians now fully understand 

 the value of money, and prefer it to old clothes or other articles. 

 The various coins, however, of English and Spanish denomination puzzle 

 them, and they never seemed to think the small silver quite secure 

 until changed into dollars. Some of the chiefs have accumulated con- 

 siderable sums of money. One chief, not long since, offered 800 

 dollars (about i6o/. sterling) for a small vessel ; and frequently they 

 purchase whale-boats and horses at the rate of from 50 to 100 dollars. 



After breakfast I went on shore, and ascended the nearest slope to 

 a height of between two and three thousand feet. The outer mountains 

 are smooth and conical, but steep ; and the old volcanic rocks, of which 

 they are formed, have been cut through by many profound ravines, 

 diverging from the central broken parts of the island to the coast. 

 Having crossed the narrow low girt of inhabited and fertile land, I 

 followed a smooth steep ridge between two of the deep ravines. The 

 vegetation was singular, consisting almost exclusively of small dwarf 

 ferns, mingled, higher up, with coarse grass ; it was not very dissimilar 

 from that on some of the Welsh hills, and this so close above the 

 orchard of tropical plants on the coast was very surprising. At the 

 highest point, which I reached, trees again appeared. Of the three 

 zones of comparative luxuriance, the lower one owes its moisture, and 

 therefore fertility, to its flatness ; for, being scarcely raised above the 

 level of the sea, the water from the higher land drains away slowly. 

 The intermediate zone does not, like the upper one, reach into a damp 

 and cloudy atmosphere, and therefore remains sterile. The woods in 

 the upper zone are very pretty, tree-ferns replacing the cocoa-nuts on 

 the coast. It must not, however, be supposed that these woods at all 

 equal in splendour the forests of Brazil. The vast number of produc- 

 tions, which characterize a continent, cannot be expected to occur in au 

 island. 



