28 TAHITI. 



compared with what we had seen of the birds in uninhabited islands, 

 where their habits would naturally correspond to those secluded in 

 the mountain solitudes of Tahiti. 



Here they learned that it would be impracticable to accomplish 

 both objects of their mission within the time for which they were 

 furnished with provisions. It was therefore resolved to divide the 

 party into two detachments, one of which should proceed towards the 

 lake, and the other endeavour to ascend the mountain. 



It was in this place that the last battle was fought between the 

 Christian and heathen parties. Paura, their guide, pointed out all the 

 places where any remarkable incidents of the conflict had occurred. 

 He seemed to take particular pleasure in drawing the attention of the 

 party to two places. In one of these a captain had his head beaten 

 to pieces, and the other was a precipice, several hundred feet in 

 height, over which the defeated party had been driven and dashed 

 to pieces. 



The detachment for the lake pursued its route, and before dark 

 reached the solitary residence of a native family, called Waiipi, 

 where they were hospitably received, and lodged in a building used 

 as a family chapel. This dwelling is situated in a romantic gorge at 

 the point of a mountain, and its existence appears to have been 

 unknown to the white residents of the coast. 



The next day this detachment proceeded up the bed of the torrent, 

 which was even more swollen than before. They were now sur- 

 rounded with the wild banana or fahie (Musa rubra), having its 

 upright spikes loaded with its beautiful fruit. Besides these, there 

 were many tree-ferns from forty to fifty feet high. Most of the trees 

 were covered with parasitic plants, which grow with great luxuriance. 

 Leaving the bed of the torrent, they soon reached the dividing ridge, 

 which, from observations with the sympiesometer, is twenty-seven 

 hundred feet above the sea. The summit of this ridge was only a 

 few paces in width, and was covered with groves of fahies, clinging, 

 and as it were bound by numerous vines, to the rock. In these 

 respects, the surrounding peaks closely resemble it. 



The view from the point of the ridge which they had reached, is 

 magnificent. The lake lay almost beneath them, at a depth of about 

 one thousand feet, surrounded on all sides by perpendicular cliffs, 

 and appearing as if inaccessible, while numerous streams rushed in 

 silvery foam down the rocks ; and the lake itself seemed diminished 

 in size by the vastness of the precipices which enclose it. 



