TAHITI 



Tahitian language, made out their answer to the friendly 

 overtures of the Americans: " Go to your own lands; 

 this belongs to us, and we do not want to have anything 

 to do with you. " From island to island went the vessels, 

 making careful measurements, and thus began those pro- 

 longed studies of corals and coral islands which gave re- 

 nown to the expedition, and affected, in so many ways, 

 the scientific career of Dana. 



The interest of the voyage increased after leaving the 

 Paumotus, for Otaheite, or Tahiti, was to be the next 

 rendezvous, even then an important commercial and 

 missionary station, though its coming significance, when 

 the French should take control, was not suspected. It 

 was on this island, it will be remembered, that Cook 

 had observed the transit of Venus in 1769. American, 

 British, and French consuls were resident in Tahiti ; also 

 a group of missionaries, Rev. Mr. Wilson, then seventy- 

 two years old, among the number ; and whaling vessels 

 often came in for supplies. The navigators found amuse- 

 ment in watching the ways of the primitive islanders. 

 For example, the pilot, called English Jim, said that for 

 some days he had " been looking out for vessels, because 

 it had thundered. ' ' The natives pressed around the ships 

 in their canoes with such prodigious clamor that every- 

 body not a chief was prohibited from coming aboard; 

 but as everybody then claimed to be a chief, some dis- 

 tinction was indispensable, and only the great chiefs were 

 admitted. It soon appeared that the object of their 

 coming was to solicit the washing of the linen, a preroga- 

 tive of the queen and chiefs. The time of the Americans, 

 when it was not taken up by the duties of navigation and 

 exploration, had some alleviations. Dana and others 

 ascended Mount Aorai, where they had a magnificent 

 view and where they settled negatively a question that 

 had been raised as to the existence on the mountain-top 

 of coral and screw-shells. Others found amusement in 



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