4o6 THE RETURN JOURNEY, [chap, xviii. 



the ground. When one reflects on the effect of intemper- 

 ance on the aboriguies of the two Americas, I think it will 

 be acknowledged that every well-wisher of Tahiti owes no 

 common debt of gratitude to the missionaries. As long as 

 tlie little island of St. Helena remained under the govern- 

 ment of the East India Company, spirits, owing to the 

 great injury they had produced, were not allowed to be 

 imported ; but wine was supplied from the Cape of Good 

 Hope. It is rather a striking, and not very gratifying fact, 

 that in the same year that spirits were allowed to be sold in 

 St. Helena, their use was banished from Tahiti by the free 

 will of the people. 



After breakfast we proceeded on our journey. As my 

 object was merely to see a little of the interior scenery, we 

 returned by another track, which descended into the main 

 valley lower down. For some distance we wound, by 

 a most intricate path, along the side of the mountain 

 which formed the valley. In the less precipitous parts we 

 passed through extensive groves of the wild banana. The 

 Tahitians, with their naked, tattooed bodies, their heads 

 ornamented with flowers, .and seen in the dark shade of 

 these groves, would have formed a fine picture of man 

 inhabiting some primeval land. In our descent we followed 

 the line of ridges ; these were exceedingly narrow, and for 

 considerable lengths steep as a ladder ; but all clothed with 

 vegetation. The extreme care necessary in poising each 

 step rendered the walk fatiguing. I did not cease to 

 wonder at these ravines and precipices : when viewing the 

 country from one of the knife-edged I'idges, the point of 

 support was so small that the effect was nearly the same as 

 it must be from a balloon. In this descent we had occasion 

 to use the ropes only once, at the point where we entered 

 the main valley. We slept under the same ledge of rock 

 where we had dined the day before ; the night was fine, 

 but from the depth and narrowness of the gorge, profoundly 

 dark. 



Before actually seeing this country, I found it difficult to 

 understand two facts mentioned by Ellis ; namely, that 

 after the murderous battles of former times, the survivors 

 on the conquered side retired Into the mountains, where a 

 handful of men could resist a multitude. Certainly half a 

 dozen men, at the spot where the Tahitian reared the old 

 tree, could easily have repulsed thousands. Secondly, that 

 after the Introduction of Christianity, there were wild men 



