76 ISLAND OF TAHITI. 



bright red and yellow, and filling the air with their sweet 

 odors, lead from one house to the other through the groves, 

 while the surrounding trees were literally alive with songsters 

 of every plumage imaginable. 



I entered several of ^the dwellings, and was received by the 

 inmates in the kindest manner. The} 7 treated me with the 

 milk of the fresh cocoa-nut and several varieties of fruits. 

 I did not see any cultivated land besides the little patches 

 attached to each house ; these were planted with sweet pota- 

 toes, yams, and tarro. 



On returning I called in at our observatory, erected on Point 

 Venus.* There were great numbers of men and women 

 assembled around it — the latter dressed in their best, and evi- 

 dently come to see and to be seen. Though many of them 

 were young, I observed none whose looks were deserving of 

 the high encomiums passed on them by the generality of for- 

 mer voyagers. There is a kind of languor about their eyes 

 that may be pleasing to some, and their feet and hands are also 

 small, but their figures are short, and the features are too 

 gross to be called handsome. A large number had their heads 

 decorated with wreaths composed of Cape jasmine and. orange 

 flowers. 



September 15th. It being Sunday to-day, the crew were 

 sent to the native chapel to attend divine service. Our chap- 

 lain performed the service, with the aid of Mr. Pratt, one of 

 the resident missionaries. This chapel is oval in shape and 

 spacious, and plastered, and white- washed on the outside ; the 

 roof is made of plaited reeds, and covered with the leaves of 

 the pandanus. The windows are furnished with blinds, but 



* It was here that Captain Cook erected his Observatory. It is a low, narrow 

 tongue of land running out northward from the island, and is thickly covered with 

 cocoa-nut trees. 



