TAHITI AND EIMEO. 61 



their time and attention to the young ; and in pursuance of this 

 object, Mr. and Mrs. Howe have lately arrived from England, for the 

 purpose of establishing an infant school. 



It is to be regretted that the schools of manual labour have, for 

 what reason I could not learn, been discontinued. Some of the 

 natives who had been instructed in them evinced a knowledge of the 

 trade of the carpenter, and furnished the ships with very good boards 

 sawn by themselves. 



The natives of Eimeo have an advantage over those of Tahiti in 

 being free from the influence of evil example : many of them are 

 industrious, and possess a proper feeling of the benefits they have 

 derived from the missionaries, of whom they speak, whenever ques- 

 tioned, as friends. 



Three of our crew having become enamoured of these islands, 

 deserted while the Vincennes lay at Eimeo. They left the ship 

 about 10 o'clock at night, soon after which their absence was dis- 

 covered, and parties sent out in every direction to intersect the roads 

 and drive them to the hills. This was effected the following; morning, 

 and a large party of natives was employed to hunt them up. This 

 task they speedily performed, and at last drove the deserters to one 

 of the highest ridges, in full view of the ship. Here the runaways 

 appeared at first disposed to make fight with stones ; but when they 

 saw the odds against them, and witnessed the alertness of the natives 

 in leaping from cliff to cliff, they thought it best to give themselves 

 up ; which they did to three natives, naked except the maro, and 

 armed respectively with a rusty sword, an old cutlass, and a piece of 

 iron hoop. These bound their hands and led them down to the 

 shore, whence they were brought on board, where the three natives 

 received the reward offered for their apprehension. The chase and 

 capture was an amusing sight to those who watched the proceedings 

 from the ship. 



Eimeo has, if possible, a more broken surface than Tahiti, and is 

 more thrown up into separate peaks ; its scenery is wild even in com- 

 parison with that of Tahiti, and particularly upon the shores, where 

 the mountains rise precipitously from the water, to the height of 

 twenty-five hundred feet. The reef which surrounds the island is 

 similar to that of Tahiti, and as we have seen to be the case there, no 

 soundings are found on the outside of it. Black cellular lava abounds, 

 and holes are found in its shattered ridges, among which is the 



VOL. II. 16 



