328 THE CRUISE OF THE ' OUBACJOA.' 



shore, which I could hear singing in the morning. I saw a 

 white crane under a tree at tlie bottom of the cove ; also 

 two large brown birds, which looked like a species of heron 

 when on the wing. Fish were jumping out of the water, 

 and pretty large ones, too. 



On the morning of September 30, a missionary in a large 

 whale-boat, rowed by natives, came on board, and asked if 

 we wanted a pilot ; finding we did not, he went off im- 

 mediately. Shortly after, three canoes with outriggers, one 

 of which had a platform, hailed the ' Cura9oa ' ; they were 

 manned by unarmed natives, who seemed rather a fine set of 

 men ; they were all more or less dressed, or aspired to be 

 dressed, in European style ; one had a military jacket on, 

 another a great coat, another a cap -and guei'nsey, &c. ; in 

 the matter of trousers the prevailing fashion was native, — 

 most of them had none. In one of the canoes was a decent- 

 looking native woman, with some boys who Avere naked and 

 looked, rather cold. 



We weighed a little before noon, and made for Port-de- 

 France. From the chart the navigation seems intricate, 

 but it appears to have been all surveyed. It was pretty 

 enough passing among all these islands. The weather was 

 line, and the water quite smooth ; we could distinguish pretty 

 accurately the shoals and reefs from the deep water by the 

 dark blue colour of the latter. We often ran within a short 

 distance of the shore, and could see streams of fi-esh water 

 and waterfalls running or tumbling down t]\e moimtain 

 sides, and near the spots where these waters ran into the sea 



