430 TAHITI CHAP. 



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 productions 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 abundance has become as noxious as a weed. 

 In Brazil I have often admired the varied beauty of the bananas, 

 palms, and orange-trees contrasted together ; and here we also 

 have the bread-fruit, conspicuous from its large, glossy, and 

 deeply digitated leaf. It is admirable to behold groves of a 

 tree, sending forth its branches with the vigour of an English 

 oak, loaded with large and most nutritious fruit. However 

 seldom the usefulness of an object can account for the pleasure 

 of beholding it, in the case of these beautiful woods, the know- 

 ledge of their high productiveness no doubt enters largely into 

 the feeling of admiration. The little winding paths, cool from 

 the surrounding shade, led to the scattered houses ; the owners 

 of which everywhere gave us a cheerful and most hospitable 

 reception. 



I was pleased with nothing so much as with the inhabitants. 

 There is a mildness in the expression of their countenances 

 which at once banishes the idea of a savage ; and an intelligence 

 which shows that they are advancing in civilisation. The 

 common people, when working, keep the upper part of their 

 bodies quite naked ; and it is then that the Tahitians are seen 

 to advantage. They are very tall, broad-shouldered, athletic, 

 and well-proportioned. It has been remarked that it requires 

 little habit to make a dark skin more pleasing and natural to 

 the eye of an European than his own colour. A white man 

 bathing by the side of a Tahitian was like a plant bleached by 

 the gardener's art compared with a fine dark green one growing 

 vigorously in the open fields. Most of the men are tattooed, 

 and the ornaments follow the curvature of the body so 

 gracefully that they have a very elegant effect. One common 

 pattern, varying in its details, is somewhat like the crown of a 

 palm-tree. It springs from the central line of the back, and 

 gracefully curls round both sides. The simile may be a 

 fanciful one, but 1 thought the body of a man thus ornamented 



